CM Uddhav Thackeray to visit Serum Institute facility today

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is set to visit the Serum Institute of India's (SII) Manjari facility on Friday afternoon, January 22, where a fire incident led to the deaths of five people.

While talking to reporters, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said, "The contractor's men were working on that floor (where the fire broke out) and when the fire brigade officials went there, they found five completely burnt bodies. Two of them were from Uttar Pradesh, two from Pune and one is from Bihar."

"The place where the COVID-19 vaccine is manufactured was not affected. I was informed that preparations were going on at this building (site of fire) to make the Rotavirus vaccine," he added.

However, according to reports, this is not likely to affect the production of Covishield, the vaccine developed by the SII in partnership with the Oxford University and British-Swedish pharma firm AstraZeneca to fight coronavirus

On January 21, SII announced a compensation of INR 25 lakhs to the families of the people who died in the fire incident at the company's facility at Manjari.

"We are deeply saddened and offer our condolences to the families of the departed. In this regard, we will be offering compensation of Rs 25 lakhs to each of the families, in addition to the mandated amount as per the norms," SII tweeted.

President Ram Nath Kovind also expressed grief over the deaths of five people who lost their lives in the fire and wished the injured persons a speedy recovery. Additionally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi too prayed for the speedy recovery of those injured and shared that he was anguished by the loss of lives caused by this unfortunate incident. 

"Anguished by the loss of lives due to an unfortunate fire at Serum Institute of India. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with the families of those who lost their lives. I pray that the injured recover at the earliest," the PM tweeted.

A fire had broken out at SII's Manjari Plant earlier on Thursday afternoon, January 21, where six people were rescued from an under-construction building. Hours later, another fire broke out again in one of the compartments of the building at SII, in Pune.

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that the initial fire was caused by ongoing welding work at the site.