India taps airlines in jab rollout

NEW DELHI/BENGALURU: Indian airlines yesterday began delivering batches of Covid-19 vaccines across the country, getting ready for the launch of a campaign to offer shots to 1.3 billion people in what officials are calling the world’s biggest vaccination drive.

Authorities hope to inoculate 300 million high-risk people over the next six to eight months. Vaccinations are scheduled to begin on Saturday.

First to get the vaccine will be 30 million health and other frontline workers, followed by about 270 million people aged over 50 or deemed high-risk.

Airlines were due to deliver 5.65 million vaccine doses yesterday to various cities, said aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri.

In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat, officials said vaccine distribution was their top priority.

“These vaccines will be taken to the cold storage from the airport and swiftly delivered to vaccination booths,” said Nitin Patel, Gujarat’s deputy chief minister.

Mr Modi’s government on Monday signed purchase agreements with Punebased vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute of India to buy its Covishield shot, more than a week after approving the vaccine developed by Britain’s AstraZeneca and Oxford University.

Serum is supplying 11 million doses of the shot to the government at 200 rupees (82 baht) a dose, a source said.

Health authorities in eastern and western states have warned, however, that shoddy transport networks and a crumbling healthcare system add an enormous layer of complexity.

At close to 10.5 million, India has the second highest number of Covid19 infections globally behind the US, although the rate of increase in cases has been slowing.