国际英语新闻:Indian PM Modi visits 3 COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing facilities

NEW DELHI, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday visited three vaccine manufacturing facilities in the country to review the development and manufacturing process of COVID-19 vaccines, officials said.

Modi embarked on the daylong three-city tour in the morning to visit the country's three vaccine manufacturing hubs.

His first stop was Gujarat, where he visited Ahmedabad's Zydus Cadila Park to discuss with scientists on the vaccine. The prime minister was briefed about the process at the facility.

"Visited the Zydus Biotech Park in Ahmedabad to know more about the indigenous DNA based vaccine being developed by Zydus Cadila. I compliment the team behind this effort for their work," Modi wrote on his social media platform after concluding the visit, saying that the government of India is actively working with them to support them.

Later on, Modi flew to Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana and visited Bharat BioTech headquarters, which is developing the COVID-19 vaccine namely Covaxin.

The Prime Minister also reached the Serum Institute of India (SII) in Pune (Maharashtra).

Officials said the purpose of the visit, apart from reviewing the status of the COVID-19 vaccine, was to understand the mechanism of its launch, production and distribution.

The development of COVID-19 vaccines is still in progress.

The Indian government has initiated a backend preparation for the largest immunization drive in the country, where five COVID-19 vaccine candidates are in advanced stages of development in India.

India's Federal Health Minister Harsh Vardhan last month said the vaccine would likely be available in India by early next year.

On Saturday morning the federal health ministry said the number of COVID-19 cases in the country has reached 9,351,109 and the death toll has risen to 136,200.

India is in the grip of the ongoing pandemic and globally it is the second worst-hit country by COVID-19.