India launches largest vaccination operation in …

India has launched the world’s largest vaccination campaign against covid-19. With a population of 1.3 billion, the country estimates that by July, it will be able to immunize 300 million people. People over 50, health workers and people considered high risk patients are the priority of the campaign launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“The dimension of this vaccination campaign has never been attempted in history,” warned Narendra Modi in a videoconference broadcast live while more than three thousand vaccination centers were activated, in each center, the first dose will be given to 100 people today, the goal is to reach 300 thousand people on the first day.

“We are witnessing the beginning of the end of the pandemic,” Health Minister Harsh Vardhan told reporters today. During this phase, 10 million health workers should be vaccinated, followed by 20 million frontline workers. then it will continue with the vaccination of people over 50 and people with serious chronic diseases.

According to data from the Indian Ministry of Health and Welfare, 10.542 million infections and 152.093 deaths from coronavirus, while the number of deaths in the world already reaches two million, according to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterrez.

According to the newspaper The time of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was visibly moved as he recalled the suffering of people during the pandemic and said in his speech “The coronavirus has caused the isolation of victims who suffered alone because their loved ones could not take care of them for fear of being infected” and I add “Many of the deceased were not able to perform their traditional funeral rites as they deserved.”

The vaccines that have been approved for emergency use are, on the one hand, Covaxin from the Indian pharmaceutical company Bharat Biotech, which was approved before the completion of third-phase human trials and unrelated to its efficacy. On the other hand, Covishield from AstraZenezca, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India. As reported by the newspaper The New York Times, hso far the government has only purchased 11 million doses of Covishield and 5.5 million doses of Covaxin, the vaccine boxes were shipped with the message “be disease free”.

Both vaccines are produced domestically. The Serum Institute is a global vaccine producer and already has a stock of 50 million doses of Covishield. As reported by the newspaper The Guardian, the institute has billions of pre-orders placed by countries around the world and the Indian government is in negotiations on the amount it will allow to export, fearing this could lead to a shortage of vaccines in the producing country.