India vaccine drive from Jan. 16 aims to reach 300m people by July

India will launch one of the world’s most ambitious coronavirus vaccination drives next Saturday, aiming to reach 300 million people by July, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in a report published by AFP.

The vaccine is to be free for the country’s population of 1.3 billion, and Modi said the January 16 start would be “a landmark step” in fighting the pandemic.

The first phase will target about 30 million health and other frontline workers including security forces and 270 million people over 50 or at highest risk from COVID-19, AFP reported.

The government has said it wants to have the first 300 million people innoculated by the end of July and has already staged mass trials of vaccination centers across the country.

About 150,000 staff in 700 districts have been trained and roughly 290,000 temperature-controlled supply points, 240 walk-in coolers, 70 walk-in freezers, 45,000 ice-line refrigerators are ready for use.

The government has approved two vaccines — AstraZeneca/Oxford University’s Covishield and one produced by Indian pharmaceutical firm Bharat Biotech, AFP added.