COVID vaccine reaches length and breadth of country

As India is set to start the vaccination program against COVID-19 on January 16, millions of doses of Covishield vaccine, manufactured by Pune's Serum Institute of India, have reached the length and breadth of the country.

Himachal Pradesh has received 93,000 shots on Thursday evening as part of the first consignment which was dispatched from SII's Pune facility.

The hilly state has more than 800 active cases of COVID-19.

Kerala, which is struggling to keep rising cases under control also received the first batch of the vaccine in Mallapuram.

The southern state has more than 65,000 active cases of coronavirus, the highest in the country.

Ladakh also got 11,500 doses of the Covishield vaccine as part of the first phase of the vaccination program.

BJP MP Jamyang Namgyal and state Health Department Director Dr Phuntsog Angchuk received the vaccine at Leh airport.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the vaccination program at 10:30 AM on January 16 with 3 crore health and frontline workers being listed to get the shots in the first phase.