Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched the pan-India vaccination drive against coronavirus, the world’s largest. Nearly 300,000  people across the nation are supposed to get the first jab of COVID-19 vaccines on Saturday, the government said in a statement. 

The two vaccines that will be used for the mass immunisation drive in India are Covishield and Covaxin. While Covishield has been developed by Oxford and is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, Covaxin has been indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech. (LIVE UPDATES) 

Here are the top quotes from PM Modi’s speech during the launch of the COVID-19 vaccination drive:

– Never before in history has such a big vaccination drive been launched

– Our vaccination programme driven by humanitarian concerns, those exposed to maximum risk get priority

– Scientists gave nod to two made-in-India vaccines after being sure of their effects, don’t pay heed to rumours, propaganda

– In the fight against Corona, we’ve set an example for the world at many steps. During the coronavirus outbreak in China, when several countries left their citizens there, we not only brought our countries back, we helped other countries as well

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– This (COVID-19) disease kept people away from their families. The mothers cried for their children and had to stay away. People could not meet their elderly admitted at hospitals. We could not bid adieu to those with proper rituals who died due to coronavirus

– Normally, it takes many years to make a vaccine but in such a short span of time, not one, but two ‘Made in India’ vaccines are ready. Meanwhile, the work on other vaccines is progressing at a fast pace

– I want to remind people of the country that two doses of the Corona vaccine are very important. Experts have said that there should be a gap of one month between both vaccinations

Also Read | All about India’s COVID-19 vaccination drive, the world’s largest exercise

– I remember when a country was facing a shortage of machines to test Indians, we sent the entire lab

– The decision to impose nationwide lockdown was not an easy one