Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a nationwide vaccination drive on Saturday to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Up to 300,000 recipients would receive their first shot of the vaccine at 3,006 sites set up across the country throughout the day. Around 100 people would be vaccinated at each site. 

Modi said a total of 30 million people would be given the vaccine in the first phase of vaccination, and nearly 300 million would be reached by the end of the second phase.