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 On Saturday, India began what the government calls the world's
biggest vaccination programme, using two shots made locally: one
licensed from Oxford University and AstraZeneca Plc, and another
developed at home by Bharat Biotech in partnership with the
state-run Indian Council of Medical Research.
"Our preparation has been such that vaccine is fast reaching every
corner of the country," Modi said while interacting with healthcare
workers from his Varanasi constituency through video conferencing.
"And on the world's biggest need today, we are completely
self-reliant. Not just that, India is also helping out many
countries with vaccines."
India, known as the pharmaceutical capital of the world, has gifted
vaccines to neighbours and partners such as Bangladesh, Nepal,
Bhutan, Seychelles, Mauritius and the Maldives. It is starting
commercial shipments to Brazil and Morocco on Friday.
The South Asian country's own vaccination drive kicked off with 30
million healthcare and other front-line workers first in the queue,
followed by about 270 million people older than 50 or deemed at
high-risk because of pre-existing medical conditions.
That puts 70-year-old Modi in the second category. He reiterated the
sequence would be followed but no made reference to when exactly he
would take the inoculation.
India, a country of 1.35 billion people, has so far reported 10.63
million COVID-19 cases - the highest after the United States - with
153,032 deaths.
The health ministry says India inoculated more people on its first
day than the United States, Britain or France. Still, it has been
urging more frontline people to come forward to take the shots as
only a handful of states have been able to meet their daily targets.
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 It said in a statement that
1.04 million people had received their first
vaccine doses as of early Friday.
Some doctors have expressed doubt about the Bharat Biotech vaccine,
which was given approval for emergency use without efficacy data
from late-stage clinical trials. The government says it is safe and
effective. Bharat Biotech said on Friday that 13,000
people participating in the late-stage trial of its COVAXIN had been
given the second dose, which could help it soon get some idea about
its efficacy. It began the late trial in November, completing
registration of a total 25,800 participants by early January.
In the coming months, India is expected to approve two more
vaccines, Russia's Sputnik V and Cadila Healthcare's ZyCov-D.
India's focus on locally-made shots could force companies such as
Pfizer Inc to also look at producing in the country.
The U.S. company was first to seek emergency use authorisation in
India early last month, with plans to import the shots, but a top
government vaccine official has told Reuters it will need to do a
local trial first. The government has also requested the company to
consider local production like the Russians have done.
(Reporting by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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