In pictures: India begins world's largest COVID-19 vaccination drive

India has started inoculating health workers Saturday in what is likely the world's largest COVID-19 vaccination campaign. | Above: A medical worker inoculates a doctor with a COVID-19 vaccine at the King Koti hospital in Hyderabad.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched India's COVID-19 vaccination drive while reassuring the country that emergency use authorisation was given to two made in India vaccines only after scientists were convinced of their safety and effectiveness, and urged people to beware of propaganda and rumours.

Sanitation worker Manish Kumar, who according to the officials is the first person in the country vaccinated against the COVID-19, receives a dose of Bharat Biotech's COVAXIN at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) hospital in New Delhi.

A medic administers the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine to a frontline worker, at Government Girls School in Gurugram. Addressing the nation ahead of the launch of what he described as the world's largest vaccination programme, Modi said these vaccines will ensure a "decisive victory" for the country over the coronavirus pandemic, but asked countrymen to continue wearing masks and maintain social distancing even after receiving the jabs.

A healthcare worker receives a dose of COVISHIELD, at a hospital in Kolkata. Emphasising the enormity of the vaccination drive, which the Prime Minister launched through a remote control amid chanting of Sanskrit shloka that meant 'let everybody be happy, let everybody be healthy', Modi said never before in history, has this type of a large-scale vaccination campaign been undertaken.

A medical worker inoculates a colleague with a COVID-19 vaccine at the Urban Primary Health Centre in Kolkata. The country is home to the world's largest vaccine makers and has one of the biggest immunization programs. But there is no playbook for the enormity of the challenge.

A medical worker inoculates a colleague with a COVID-19 vaccine at the KC General hospital in Bangalore. Authorities hope to give shots to 300 million people, roughly the population of the US and several times more than its existing program that targets 26 million infants.

Medics and health workers applause for Dr Vidya Thakur after she took the first dose of the Covishield vaccine, at Rajawadi hospital in Mumbai.

A healthcare worker reacts as she receives a dose of COVISHIELD, at Mathalput Community Health Centre in Koraput district, Odisha. The recipients include 30 million doctors, nurses and other front-line workers to be followed by 270 million others, who are either aged over 50 or have illnesses that make them vulnerable to COVID-19.

Around 100 people will be vaccinated in each of the 3,006 centers across the country on the first day, the Health Ministry said.

A doctor gestures with others as he receives a COVID-19 vaccine at the Urban Primary Health Centre in Kolkata.

A medic administers the first dose of Covishield vaccine to Shiv Kumar Choudhary, at AIIMS in New Delhi. Cost of vaccination of healthcare and frontline workers will be borne by the central government.

A nurse administers the first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine to Dr. Parmindra Sirohi, in Bikaner.

A health worker shows COVID-19 vaccine in Mumbai.

A medic administers the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine to a frontline worker, at Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) in Patna.

A medical worker inoculates Vidya Thakur (R), medical dean of the Rajawadi Hospital, with a COVID-19 vaccine at the hospital in Mumbai.

A medic administers the first dose of Covishield vaccine to a health worker, at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College in Ajmer.

A paramedic checks the vital of her colleague after she received a COVID-19 vaccine at a government Hospital in Srinagar.