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"Serum Institute of India (SII) has received a purchase order from Government of India," said SII officials.
The drug is expected to roll out of SII's Pune facilities by tomorrow morning as quoted by ANI.
The SII vaccine developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca was cleared for emergency use along with Bharat Biotech's indigenous "Covaxin" earlier this month.
60 Crore doses needed for 30 crore people
On 3rd January, India's drug regulator has approved emergency use authorization of the vaccine developed by Oxford University as well as another developed by Indian firm Bharat Biotech, but the government has not placed firm orders with either of the firm.
Senior officials have been discussing the terms of the deal with the Serum Institute for weeks, hoping to bring down prices below $3 per shot, one of the sources with direct knowledge told Reuters earlier today.
The government aims to secure 600 million doses for the country's vaccination drive aimed at inoculating 300 million citizens over the next six to eight months. Serum, the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines has stockpiled 50 million doses for immediate distribution
On Saturday, the government announced the immunisation programme will begin on Jan. 16. The plan is to cover 300 million people in the first part of the programme, kicking off with health workers, frontline staff such as police and then people over the age of 50 and those with co-morbidities.
Meanwhile, three phases of dry runs have been conducted across the country, with the third dry run conducted on Friday across 615 districts covering 4895 session sites in 33 states and UTs.