India launched the world’s largest inoculation drive against COVID-19 on Saturday, vaccinating nearly two lakh frontline healthcare and sanitary workers on Day 1. 

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted that the two vaccines- Covishield and Covaxin- will ensure a “decisive victory” for India against the coronavirus, the Union Health Ministry said that it successfully conducted the drive across all states and Union Territories.

“These vaccines will ensure a decisive victory for India against coronavirus,” Modi said, kickstarting the much-awaited mass vaccination, which saw Manish Kumar, a 34-year-old sanitation worker, getting the first jab at AIIMS, Delhi in the presence of Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan.

Kumar said many of the staff who were to get the jabs were scared. “So I went to my seniors and said I should be given the vaccine first. I wanted to prove to my colleagues that there is no need to be scared,” he told PTI.

Also read: In pictures: India launches nationwide vaccine drive against coronavirus

A sense of joy and excitement was witnessed at medical centres across the country with the beneficiaries being administered the vaccines developed in less than a year after India recorded the first coronavirus case in Kerala on January 30, 2020.

Injecting confidence in the people, several high profile persons, including AIIMS director Randeep Guleria, NITI Aayog member VK Paul, who is also head of an empowered group on medical equipment and management plan to tackle the coronavirus outbreak, Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawallah, West Bengal minister Nirmal Maji, BJP MP Mahesh Sharma, who is a doctor by profession, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group, Dr Prathap C Reddy and Chairman of Manipal Hospitals Sudarshan Ballal also received their first shot of the two-dose vaccine.

Notably, Covishield, which is developed by Oxford University in collaboration with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, is being manufactured by SII, while Covaxin is an indigenously developed vaccine by Bharat Biotech.

A total of 1,91,181 beneficiaries were inoculated with COVID-19 vaccine at 3,352 session sites across the country on the first day, the Health Ministry said. The Centre is bearing the cost of phase one of the drive.

Health workers who got their first shots of Covaxin at the AIIMS were made to sign a consent form that promised compensation in case of a “severe adverse event” related to the vaccine. “The clinical efficacy is yet to be established and it is still being studied in phase 3 clinical trial,” the form read.

Also read: As India rolls out COVID-19 vaccination drive, signing consent forms takes front seat

From the heights of Ladakh to coastal Kerala, there was an almost festive air at many hospitals and medical centres decorated with flowers, balloons and buntings. Prayers, and sweets and gift hampers too, were offered in several places. One video showed a vaccine box being garlanded as a nurse performed an ‘Arti’.

In Mumbai, JJ Hospital Dean Dr Ranjit Mankeshwar was among the first in the state to get the shot. The inoculation drive is taking place at 285 centres in Maharashtra.

In Gujarat, the drive began at 161 centres in the state where the vaccine jabs were administered to health workers almost simultaneously.

In Madhya Pradesh, where healthcare workers were welcomed with flowers at some centres and doctors performed a ‘puja’ at a temple in Gwalior, a sanitation worker was among the first beneficiaries.

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Tamil Nadu rolled out the COVID-19 vaccination drive at 166 sites across the state with a government doctor the first to be administered the shot.

And in Telangana, a woman sanitation worker received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine at a Hyderabad hospital to cheers and claps. Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy and Telangana Health Minister Eatala Rajender formally launched the vaccination programme at the state-run Gandhi Hospital.

The Delhi government informed that a total of 52 cases (51-minor, 1-severe) of Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI) were reported on the first day of COVID-19 vaccination drive. 11 cases of mild AEFI were also reported in Telangana.

Maharashtra suspended its drive till January 18 due to a technical glitch in Co-WIN system.