India stumbles in race to vaccinate 300m by August

National campaign stalls amid safety concerns about homegrown COVID shots

20210308N Modi gets inoculated

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi receives a dose of the Covaxin coronavirus vaccine in New Delhi on March 1. © AP

MOYURU BABA, Nikkei staff writer

NEW DELHI -- India's ambitious goal of vaccinating 300 million people against the coronavirus by August has quickly hit a snag due to concerns surrounding the country's homegrown vaccine.

When vaccinations started being administered to those aged 60 and over on Monday last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted a picture of himself receiving the first dose to demonstrate the safety of the inoculation.

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