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India’s ambitious coronavirus vaccination drive is falling victim to a growing mistrust with almost half of beneficiaries skipping their shots over fears of side effects, technical glitches and expectations of an ebbing pandemic.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the world’s biggest vaccination drive on January 16 to inoculate 300 million vulnerable people from the 1.4 billion population in the nation hit second-hardest worldwide by the pandemic, with 10.6 million confirmed cases and 153,000 deaths from Covid-19.
But 10 days into the drive, many vaccination centres nationwide are witnessing a shortfall in anticipated turnout from priority groups, at times receiving only half of the expected numbers, as doctors, nurses and other key frontline workers avoid taking the shots.