The 1,700km journey to deliver COVID-19 vaccine to India's rural health workers

Armed polilce stand guard at the state vaccine storage. From factory to faraway village: behind Indias mammoth vaccination drive In Bhubaneswar, capital of India's mineral rich but impoverished eastern state of Odisha, Authorities began the arduous task of counting and packing COVID-19 vaccine vials to keep them at between 2-8 degrees Celsius for up to three days.

A health department employee counts vials of the vaccine. It fell on veteran health department driver Lalu Porija, who had driven his delivery van all night to reach the storage site, to truck them some 500 kilometres back to Koraput, guarded by an armed policeman.

Healthcare workers at the state store pack the vaccine developed by Oxford/AstraZeneca into a box before being transported to a regional vaccine store.

Healthcare workers at the state store pack the vaccine.

A police stand guard as health workers pack up the vaccine.

Health workers pack up the vaccine.

Health care workers carry a box containing the vaccine.

A health department driver washes a vaccine van before transporting the vaccine.

A van delivers the vaccine developed by Oxford/AstraZeneca at Mathalput Community Health Centre.

A woman carries a boy in Pendajam village in Koraput, India.

Health workers store the vaccine developed by Oxford/AstraZeneca inside a refrigerator at Mathalput Community Health Centre, in Koraput, India.

Reena Jani, 34, a health worker, waits to receive the vaccine developed by Oxford/AstraZeneca at Mathalput Community Health Centre.

Jani's name was on a list of 100 health workers at Mathalput Community Health Centre, making her one of the first Indians to be inoculated against COVID-19 earlier this month, as the country rolls out a vaccination programme the government calls the world's biggest.

But she had heard rumours of serious side effects and worried about what would happen were she to get ill. "I was frightened because of my son and daughters. If something happens to me, what will they do?" Jani said.