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Coronavirus: How India is readying for its massive vaccine drive

EPA An Indian health worker mocks the vaccination process during a dry run of Covid-19 vaccination inside a Covid-19 vaccination centre at Rajawadi Hospital, in Mumbai, India, 08 January 2021.EPA

On 16 January, India will begin what will be one of the world's biggest inoculation programmes, aimed at protecting its 1.3 billion people from Covid-19.

The government plans to vaccinate 300 million people by early August. It will begin with an estimated 10 million health workers, followed by policemen, soldiers, municipal and other frontline workers.

Next in line for the jab would be people aged over 50 and anyone under 50 with serious underlying health conditions.

India has recorded the second-highest number of Covid-19 infections in the world, after the US. Since the pandemic began it has confirmed more than 10.3 million cases and over 150,000 deaths.

The country's drugs regulator has given the green light to two vaccines - Covishield that has been developed by AstraZeneca with Oxford University and Covaxin by local firm Bharat Biotech.

AFP Media personnel surround a refrigerator truck before leaving the Serum Institute of India with vials of Covishield vaccine in Pune early on January 12, 2021.AFP
Refrigerated trucks carrying the first vials of the Covishield vaccines rolled out of a facility in the western city of Pune early on Tuesday.
EPA A health worker is seen with a Tibetan woman inside a room during a dry run of Covid-19 vaccination inside a vaccination centre at Delek Hospital in Dharamsala, IndiaEPA
Last week, health officials staged mass trials at vaccination centres across the country, like this one in the northern city of Dharamsala, the Dalai Lama's home in exile.
Reuters Healthcare workers sit inside a classroom of a school, which has been converted into a temporary vaccination centre, during a nationwide trial run of COVID-19 vaccine delivery systems, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India.Reuters
Government schools, community centres and hospitals have been converted into temporary vaccination centres.
Mansi Thapliyal Health workers visiting homes to inform people about the vaccinationMansi Thapliyal
Health workers are visiting homes in the remotest parts of India to inform people about the vaccination, like this meeting in the northern state of Uttarakhand.
Mansi Thapliyal Health activists Seema Pal and Rama NegiMansi Thapliyal
Health activists Seema Pal and Rama Negi say they have also been busting misinformation about the vaccine in Uttarakhand.
Mansi Thapliyal A doctors conducting training for vaccinators and health workers in UttarakhandMansi Thapliyal
Doctors are conducting training for vaccinators and health workers across India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said "priority will be given to our brave doctors, healthcare workers [and] frontline workers".
Mansi Thapliyal Kiran Mal, a female health worker, attending to a patient in UttarakhandMansi Thapliyal
Kiran Mal (sitting), a female health worker, is among India's 154,000 nurses and midwives who will be deployed to give Covid-19 vaccines.
Mansi Thapliyal A woman getting a tetanus jab in UttarakhandMansi Thapliyal
India is likely to gain from its experience of running the world's biggest immunisation programme - it inoculates more than 40 million newborns and pregnant women against 12 diseases every year - for the Covid vaccination programme. Here, Ms Mal is giving a tetanus jab to a woman.
EPA The Vaccine Van which is used to distribute the Covid-19 vaccine when available, in Bangalore, India, 07 January 2021. The second phase of dry run for COVID-19 vaccinations will be conducted in five districts - Belagavi, Bengaluru, Kalaburagi, Mysuru and Shivamoga - across the state, as directed by the Union Health Ministry.EPA
Special vans, like this one in the southern city of Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), will be deployed all over the country to distribute the vaccines.
EPA An Indian health official conducts routine checks of the Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (EVIN) ice line cold storage refrigerator at a city government hospital in Bangalore, India.EPA
Health officials at a government hospital in Bengaluru check refrigerators which will be used to store vaccines. Across India, some 29,000 cold storage facilities would be used for the purpose - nearly all vaccines need to be transported and distributed between 2C and 8C in what comprises the so-called cold chain.
EPA A doctor waits near a vaccination guideline poster in a Covid-19 vaccination centre during a second phase of mock vaccinations in Kolkata, India, 08 January 2021. Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has approved the emergency use of coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.EPA
Posters detailing guidelines have been put up at several centres like this one in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) during mock vaccination exercises.