India's vaccinations hit record with free Covid shots

A health worker inoculates a woman with a jab of Covishield's Covid-19 Coronavirus vaccine at a club in Siliguri after India opened up free vaccinations to all adults in an attempt to bolster its inoculation drive.

India gave out a record 5 million vaccine doses on Monday under a federal campaign to inoculate all adults for free after weeks of criticism that a chaotic rollout had worsened a second wave that killed hundreds of thousands. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government would buy 75% of all vaccines from drug makers and distribute those for free to states, which along with private hospitals, had earlier been buying shots for people aged 18-45. ‘It marks the beginning of the end of adversities related to Covid-19 in the country,’ Giridhara Babu, a member of the Indian Council of Medical Research, the country's main health research agency, told Reuters. Since May, widespread shortages worsened a divide between urban and rural areas, as many younger people in cities turned to private hospitals, paying between $9-$24 a dose.