PM Narendra Modi launches roll out of pan India Covid-19 vaccination drive

New Delhi: Rolling out the world’s biggest vaccination programme on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the Indian vaccine is cheapest and the best in the world. He said that the fight against coronavirus has been dealt with self-confidence and self-reliance, adding that the country will not let its confidence weaken.

“This disease kept people away from their families. The mothers cried for their children & 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 corona,” PM Modi said in a video conference to the nation at the launch of the inoculation programme.

Over 3 lakh healthcare workers will be inoculated on the first day of the much-anticipated drive, which the government said is “probably the beginning of the end of COVID-19”.

A total of 3,006 session sites across all states and union territories are virtually connected during the launch by PM Modi and around 100 beneficiaries will be vaccinated at each session site.

“India’s vaccination programme is based on humane protocol. Those most vulnerable are getting the vaccination first. Our health care and frontline workers have the first claim to this COVID-19 vaccine,” PM Modi said.

“Today when we take a look at the last year, we realise that we have learnt a lot as a person, a family and as a nation,” he added.