India begins roll out of largest COVID-19 vaccination program

The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi launched the pan India rollout of COVID-19 vaccination drive via video conferencing .  This is the world’s largest vaccination program covering the entire length and breadth of the country.

The Prime Minister said that in the first round itself, three crore people, which is more than the population of at least 100 countries of the world, are being vaccinated. He said that this needs to be taken up to 30 crores in the second round when elderly and people with serious co-morbidities will be vaccinated. He said that there are only three countries- India, US and China, who have a population of more than 30 crore.  This scale of vaccination campaign has never been attempted in history and this shows India’s capability, Modi said.

The Prime Minister asked people stay away from rumours and propaganda as these made-in-India vaccines have been approved for emergency use only after the scientists and experts were fully convinced about their safety and efficacy. He pointed out that 60 per cent of children world over receive life-saving vaccines which are made-in-India and pass through stringent Indian scientific tests.

The Prime Minister said Indian vaccines are not only much cheaper than the foreign vaccines but they are much easier to administer too. Some of the foreign vaccines, the Prime Minister pointed out, are priced upto Rs 5000 per dose and have to be stored in minus 70-degree temperature. Whereas, Indian vaccines are based on technology which has been tried and tested for many years in India. With regard to storage to transportation, these vaccines are suitable for India conditions and the will help us in securing a decisive victory in our fight against Corona, said the Prime Minister.

He recalled the journey from one corona lab to the strong network of 2300 labs; from dependence to self-sufficiency to exporting capacity in masks, PPE and ventilators. He called upon people to show the same sense of self-confidence and self-reliance during the phase of vaccination drive.