World's biggest vaccine drive begins in India: Health workers get first jab

Health-workers flashed victory signs and smiled for cameras after being given coronavirus vaccines as India kicked off one of the largest inoculation drives in the world on Saturday, setting in motion a complex plan aimed at stemming infections across a nation of more than 1.3 billion people.

At hospitals and vaccination centers across major Indian cities -- from Mumbai to New Delhi -- tens of thousands of key frontline workers began queuing, some receiving the first vaccines while others administered them. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the program with a speech addressing more than 3,000 centers across India, where the first shots were to be given.

“These vaccines will help India win the battle against the virus,” Modi said, adding that Indians should get the shots and not pay heed to any anti-vaccine propaganda.

A health worker fixes a sign reading "Vaccination Room" during a trial of a Covid-19 vaccine delivery system at the Northern Railway Central Hospital in New Delhi, India, on Friday, Jan. 8, 2021. India plans to inoculate 30 million frontline workers in the first phase of vaccinations, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said in a tweet last week.

At each location, some 100 people are expected to receive the injections on Saturday.

In a hospital in Mumbai, health workers chanted the Hindu god Ganesha’s name, believed to bless new beginnings, as they moved vials from cold storage to the vaccination sites. Many health workers and hospital staff shortlisted to be inoculated on the first day of the campaign said they were relieved to be on the list.

“I was ready for the vaccine,” said Ninad Gayakwad, a doctor at Mumbai’s Cooper Hospital. “I’ve taken it and I’m happy I’ve taken it.” In other hospitals across the country, similar scenes played out.

Randeep Guleria, a member of Modi’s taskforce for Covid-19 management and V.K. Paul, who heads a panel advising the prime minister on the country’s efforts to produce and roll-out the inoculation, were both administered the shot in New Delhi.

The inoculation campaign across the world’s second-most populous country will showcase whether Covid-19 can be swiftly tamed in nations with disjointed health and transportation networks. Officially, more than 10.5 million people in India have been infected with the disease that has also killed at least 150,000 in the country.

Unexpected Glitches

The effort comes as more-developed nations struggle in trying to rush out inoculations. Though the U.S. and other countries have stockpiled hundreds of millions of doses, the pace of vaccinations has been challenged by unexpected glitches and logistical problems.

India’s rollout is one of the earliest and most ambitious in Asia, where many nations are taking a slower approach in vaccinating their populations. That’s partly because those countries are facing less severe virus outbreaks than India, which has the second-highest number of infections in the world.

India has granted emergency licenses to the two-dose vaccines manufactured by Bharat Biotech International Ltd. and the Serum Institute of India Ltd. The latter partnered with AstraZeneca Plc to make at least one billion doses of their shot. New Delhi already made its first purchase of 11 million Astra shots, as well as 5.5 million vials of Covaxin, the indigenous inoculation produced by Bharat Biotech.

A cold storage haulage truck containing Covid-19 vaccines stops while being escorted by police from the cargo section of the Indira Gandhi International Airport, to Haryana, in New Delhi, India, on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021. India has kicked off one of the world’s biggest inoculation programs that will be a crucial test of how quickly developing countries, with limited health and transportation infrastructure, can protect their populations against Covid-19.

Plans drawn up by India’s health ministry outline steps to vaccinate 300 million people in the first stage through August.

In an initial round, 30 million health care and front line workers -- such as the police and defense forces -- will receive injections. The second phase is targeted at about 270 million people above the age of 50 and those at particular risk to Covid. The process will draw on existing networks used to vaccinate tens of millions of babies each year against diseases such as polio.

India’s deployment blueprint “has a level of detail which I haven’t seen in any other rollout plans,” said Prashant Yadav, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington.

Bottleneck Risks

But those arrangements may face bottlenecks and vaccine wastage when implemented by the country’s four levels of government, particularly once deployment fans out to India’s rural hinterland, he said.

“There are going to be clinics in places which don’t have as much demand as was originally planned, which requires changing the plan, making supply shift to other locations quickly,” Yadav said. “Is the decision-making going to be agile?”

A health worker wearing a protective mask, left, talks to a volunteer during a nationwide trial of a Covid-19 vaccine delivery system at a vaccination center set up in Delhi, India, on Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021. India tested its Covid-19 vaccine delivery system with a nationwide trial as the South Asian nation prepares to roll-out an inoculation program to stem the world’s second-worst outbreak.

Administrators of vaccines may also face a hesitant population after India’s drug regulator caused controversy by giving the green light to Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin this month even though it has yet to clear final-stage trials.

The decision on the shot developed in partnership with India’s government was met with widespread criticism among scientists. Days later, executives from Bharat Biotech and Serum engaged in a public spat over their respective vaccines’ safety.

“I have no apprehension. Both the vaccines are safe,”said Sandeep Nayar, 54, a senior doctor at the BLK Super Speciality Hospital in New Delhi, who had been chosen to get the first shot at his hospital. He flashed a victory sign for waiting photographers after receiving the injection.

‘Massive Effort’

“It’s unclear whether every state, district, every vaccine site will get both,” and if Indians will get a choice, Yadav said. “People have questions about both, but particularly about one of them -- that is the trickiest part of this rollout.”

Government officials have been adamant that both vaccines are safe and have urged the public to get inoculated.

For now, health experts and industry specialists are confident the initial phase in urban centers will be relatively well managed. The real test will come as India widens its vaccination net.

“The rollout itself looks like a massive effort,” Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said in an interview. “But in India, we’ve had several such drive