Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched India’s coronavirus vaccine drive on Saturday. He launched the program via video-conferencing.

India’s drug regulator has granted emergency approval to two COVID-19 vaccines: Covishield and Covaxin. While Covishield has been developed by British firm AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford and is manufactured at the Serum Institute of India, Covaxin has been indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech.

While launching the vaccine drive, the PM said two doses of the vaccine will be administered. He cautioned people to not get careless after getting the first shot and told them to wear masks and follow social distancing.

Highlighting the scale of the immunisation programme, Modi said there are over 100 countries with a population of less than three crore and India will vaccinate those many people in the first phase.

In the second phase, we’ve to take this number to 30 crores, the PM said, adding that only three countries (China, India and the US) have a population of over 30 crores.

Manish Kumar, a sanitation worker, was the first to receive the coronavirus jab at AIIMS, Delhi, ANI reported. AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria too received the shot at AIIMS, Delhi.