Adar Poonawalla, whose Serum Institute of India (SII) manufactured the first lot of COVID-19 vaccines, was among those who got vaccinated on Saturday, as India kicked off world's largest immunisation campaign to bring the pandemic under control.
He wished the country and Prime Minister Narendra Modi success for the vaccination programme.
As sanitation and healthcare workers around the country got the first inoculation, Poonawalla tweeted a short video of him getting the vaccine.
'I wish India & Sri @narendramodi ji great success in launching the world's largest COVID vaccination roll-out. It brings me great pride that #COVISHIELD is part of this historic effort & to endorse it's safety & efficacy, I join our health workers in taking the vaccine myself,' Poonawalla tweeted. SII manufactured Oxford University-AstraZeneca's vaccine Covishield, while Bharat Biotech developed the other vaccine Covaxin that is being administered in the inoculation drive.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched nation-wide COVID-19 vaccination drive via video conference today and almost three lakh beneficiaries, belonging to the priority groups, will be administered the silver bullet at over 3,006 vaccination sites across the country. Around 100 beneficiaries will be vaccinated at each session site.