India launches massive vaccination campaign

India on Saturday began what is likely the world's largest coronavirus vaccination rollout when the country's first dose was administered to a sanitation worker at the All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. All told, more than 190,000 people received a shot on day one, which fell short of the initial target, but there were no reports of large-scale problems, The Washington Post reports.

The government of the world's second most populous nation, which the Post notes has a "long track record of mass-producing vaccines at affordable prices," is hoping to inoculate 300 million people against the coronavirus by the summer, beginning with 30 million frontline health care workers, followed by 270 million people who are either over 50 years old or have illnesses that make them particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.

New Delhi has granted emergency approval to the vaccine produced by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, which also received a green light in the United Kingdom, as well as one developed by Bharat Biotech, an Indian pharmaceutical company. The latter has gone through early stage trials, but Bharat Biotech has yet to provide any data, which concerns medical experts in India, but some of the country's top doctors reportedly received it without hesitation. Read more at The Associated Press and The Washington Post.

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