With hospitals decked out with flowers and balloons, India began Saturday one of the world’s biggest coronavirus vaccine rollouts, a colossal and complex task compounded by safety worries, shaky infrastructure, and public skepticism.
On day one around 300,000 people were due to receive the first of two doses after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the programme live on his YouTube channel. Regular child inoculations are a “much smaller game” and vaccinating against Covid-19 will be “deeply challenging”, said Satyajit Rath from the National Institute of Immunology.Both vaccines approved so far need to be kept refrigerated at all times, and others being developed will need to be stored at ultra-low temperatures too.
Authorities also need to make sure that vaccine doses do not “go missing” and end up being sold on India’s large black market for medicines.More than 150,000 Indians have died from Covid-19 and the economy is one of the worst-hit worldwide, with millions losing their livelihoods. Others accused India’s Muslim minority of deliberately spreading the virus with hashtags like “#CoronaJihad”, or denounced the pandemic as a cover for a plan to implant trackable microchips.
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