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

Through the day as many as 300,000 recipients would receive their first shot of the vaccine at 3,006 sites set up across the country. 

India's COVID-19 tally rose to 10,542,841 on Saturday as 15,158 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours, said the latest data from the federal health ministry.

According to the official data, the death toll mounted to 152,093 as 175 COVID-19 patients have died since Friday morning.