Five deaths have been reported so far in a fire broke out in a building under construction at Serum Institute, a vaccine manufacturer of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Coronavirus in India.
Pune district collector Rajesh Deshmukh confirmed the death three hours after the fire broke out, according to Indian media.
In a tweet about the death, Adar Poonawala, head of the Serum Institute of India, said, “We are deeply shocked at this incident.”
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Meanwhile, NDTV reports that another five people who were trapped in the building after the fire broke out. But they were all rescued.
The building of the Serum Institute caught fire in the afternoon Thursday. The Serum Institute is located in Manjiri area of Pune.
Black smoke spread in the area adjacent to the institute after the fire originated. Fire fighters rushed to the scene and started the fire control effort.
The incident would not affect the production of the Coronavirus vaccine, Poonawala had tweeted earlier. Serum Institute of India has been manufacturing Covid-19 vaccine — Covishield — with Oxford-AstraZeneca partnership.
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