Thousands skip India’s vaccine drive launch

India yesterday stepped up efforts to bolster trust in coronavirus vaccines after it was revealed that nearly a third of those invited to get jabs at the launch of a nationwide drive failed to turn up. The government has launched one of the world's most ambitious vaccine programmes, aiming to innoculate 300 million of the 1.3 billion population by July. In the first two days of the drive, which started Saturday, the government said 224,000 of 300,000 planned vaccinations were carried out. In the capital New Delhi, only 53 percent of people came forward for jabs, according to a health official.