UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is saddened by the loss of life in a fire at the Serum Institute of India facility in Pune and hopes that the incident is fully investigated, his spokesperson has said. Five men died after a fire broke out in a five-storeyed under-construction building in the Serum Institute of India s Manjari premises in Pune on Thursday, police said. The Manjari facility is where the Covishield vaccines used in the nationwide inoculation drive against the pandemic are made. The building where fire broke out is one km from the Covishield vaccine manufacturing unit. We, obviously, are saddened by the loss of life and send our condolences to the families impacted, and we hope the fire is fully investigated, Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, said at the daily press briefing on Thursday.
Hailing the approval given to two coronavirus vaccines as a decisive turning point in the spirited fight against the pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that this will accelerate the process for India to become a COVID-free nation. In a series of tweets after the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) approved Oxford s vaccine Covishield and Bharat Biotech s Covaxin for restricted emergency use, Modi said it will make every Indian proud that both the vaccines are made in India. This shows the eagerness of our scientific community to fulfil the dream of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat, at the root of which is care and compassion, he said, congratulting the nation, scientists and innovators.