‘Go for it’

Hospital cleaning worker Manish Kumar became the first person in India to be vaccinated against Covid-19 yesterday, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched one of the world's largest immunisation campaigns to bring the pandemic under control. 

Kumar received his shot at Delhi's premier All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), one of 3,006 vaccination centres established around the country.

"The vaccine will give me strength and motivation to serve my hospital which has been at the forefront of taking care of coronavirus patients," Kumar said. "Since I'm feeling relieved after taking the vaccine, I think everyone should go for it."

India is prioritising nurses, doctors and other frontline workers, and Modi had tears in his eyes as he addressed healthcare workers via video conferencing. The government is calling its immunisation campaign the biggest in the world and hopes around 300,600 people will be vaccinated on the first day - a first step in administering around 300 million people with two doses in the first six to eight months of the year.

With a population of nearly 1.4 billion people, India is the world's most populous country after China. Some 10.5 million people in India have been infected with the coronavirus and more than 151,000 have died, though infection rate has come down from a peak in mid-September.

India is using the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine and a government-backed vaccine developed by India's Bharat Biotech whose efficacy is not yet known. People will not be able to choose which of the vaccines - both of which are being produced locally - that they get.