Reena Jani receives the vaccine developed by Oxford/AstraZeneca at Mathalput Community Health Centre in Koraput, India. Jani's name was on a list of 100 health workers at the center, making the 34-year-old one of the first Indians to be inoculated against COVID-19 earlier this month, as the country rolls out a vaccination program the government calls the world's biggest.

REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Reena Jani sits outside her home with her husband Suna Jani, 15-year-old daughter Rajani and 10-year-old son Sujeet, a day before receiving the vaccine. Jani became an accredited social health activist (ASHA) community health worker, a lynchpin of India's rural healthcare system, around seven years ago. She helps to monitor pregnant women in her village of 500 people, and helps with malaria tests and doles out basic medication for fever and diarrhoea. The main breadwinner for her family of five, Jani draws a monthly salary of 3,000 rupees ($41), helping put her two daughters and one son through school.

REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Jani had heard rumors of serious side effects and worried about what would happen were she to get ill. "I was frightened because of my son and daughters. If something happens to me, what will they do?" Jani told Reuters, visibly relieved after the injection produced no immediate side effects.

REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

The vaccine she received had traveled much further. It was taken by plane, truck and van some 1,700 km from the factory to the Koraput clinic (pictured) where Jani waited, and it had to be kept cold the whole way.

REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Its safe arrival in Koraput district, where leftist guerrillas wage a low-level insurgency amid rolling hills and thick forests, was testament to detailed planning and groundwork by authorities in the state of Odisha.

REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Health workers pack up the vaccine before they are transported to various vaccination centres from a regional vaccine store in Koraput, India. Officials acknowledge this is just the tip of the iceberg. The 1.5 million vaccinated so far, mainly targeting key workers like Jani, are a tiny first phase of a vaccine program that India hopes will eventually protect its 1.4 billion people from the coronavirus.

REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

A woman looks out from Pendajam village in Koraput. Only when the much larger third phase is launched, aimed at 270 million people deemed vulnerable, will the government know if its plan to distribute shots across sometimes hostile terrain and amid high temperatures will succeed.

REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

A woman carries a boy in Pendajam village in Koraput. Supplying vaccines is one thing. Convincing people to take them is another. Skepticism about the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 shots is high in India, particularly in rural areas, officials say, and misinformation via social media platforms and word-of-mouth could undermine the effort. The deployment comes as the number of coronavirus cases in India approached 11 million and deaths exceeded 150,000.

REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Manufactured in the western city of Pune by the Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine maker by volume, some 40,800 vials of the AstraZeneca shot were flown on a commercial airline into Odisha's capital city on Jan. 12. A fire last week at the Pune plant killed five people but officials said vaccine production would not be affected.

REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

India has distributed 16.5 million doses of the two approved vaccines to its states and territories, which dispersed them using an army of drivers and an infrastructure established for existing vaccination programs but bolstered for the pandemic.

REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

In Odisha, after a delayed start on Jan. 13, government staff at the vaccine center pulled out vials from a cavernous refrigerator and carefully counted them, before packing them into insulated boxes with ice packs to keep them at between 2-8 degrees Celsius for up to three days.

REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Then it was over to veteran health department driver Lalu Porija. He drove his delivery van all night to reach the site, and now had to truck the vaccines 500 km (310 miles) back to Koraput with an armed policeman in plain clothes for company. "I am feeling a little tired," said Porija, as he stopped to sip tea late that evening after a traffic jam delayed the trip by several hours.

REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

A health department truck waits in a traffic jam as it transports the vaccine in Ganjam, India. Negotiating cows, debris, thick fog and hairpin bends, and fighting fatigue, Porija drove nearly 24 hours within three days to collect and deliver the vaccine shots to Koraput town.

REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

On Jan. 15, at Koraput's main vaccine store, healthcare workers counted, packed and loaded smaller quantities for the district's five vaccination sites, including the Mathalput Community Health Centre some 30 km away.

REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

A small white van drove out at noon, kicking up dust on narrow countryside roads, for a delivery run to multiple sites. Again, an armed policeman sat inside. "The most awaited vaccine," a healthcare worker at Mathalput said to colleagues, as a box of shots was unloaded.

REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

India has mapped out a plan to vaccinate around 300 million people by July-August. In the first phase, which got underway earlier this month, the target is 10 million healthcare workers, including Jani. Next are 20 million essential services workers, followed by 270 million people deemed susceptible to the coronavirus.

REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Beyond that there is no clear road map, although the government has said every Indian who wants or needs the vaccine will get it.

REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Reena Jani waits to receive the vaccine in Koraput, India. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Ramishi, 13, whose mother Reena Jani is a health worker scheduled to receive the vaccine, tries to find signal on her phone so she can ring her mother. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

A phone belonging to Reena Jani, 34, a health worker, is hung up outside her home to receive signal, in Pendajam village in Koraput. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Armed police officers stand guard at the state vaccine storage before the vaccine developed by Oxford/AstraZeneca are transported to various vaccination stores, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Bhubaneswar, India, January 13, 2021. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui SEARCH "SIDDIQUI OXFORD/ASTRAZENECA" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES 

Reena Jani gets ready at her home before travelling to Mathalput Community Health Centre to receive the vaccine. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Reena Jani leaves Mathalput Community Health Centre after receiving the vaccine. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Reena Jani washes her utensils before travelling to Mathalput Community Health Centre to receive the vaccine. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Reena Jani cooks a meal before travelling to Mathalput Community Health Centre to receive the vaccine. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Reena Jani cooks a meal. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Reena Jani gets ready to leave her home before travelling to Mathalput Community Health Centre to receive the vaccine. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Pictures of health worker Reena Jani's children and Jesus Christ are hung up inside Jani's home in Pendajam village in Koraput. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Reena Jani speaks to one of her patients who is pregnant, before travelling to Mathalput Community Health Centre to receive the vaccine. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Reena Jani gets ready to ride on her neighbour's motorcycle to Mathalput Community Health Centre, where she was scheduled to receive the vaccine. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Reena Jan arrives at Mathalput Community Health Centre on her neighbour's motorcycle to receive the vaccine. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Chandan Majhi, a plainclothes policeman, talks to another policeman who stopped him as he was escorting a health department truck transporting the vaccine developed by Oxford/AstraZeneca from the state vaccine store to a regional vaccine store in Ganjam. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Lalu Porija (2nd L), a health department driver, eats at a roadside restaurant, as he transports the vaccine developed by Oxford/AstraZeneca from the state vaccine store to a regional one in Barkul. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

A policeman stands guard as health workers pack up the vaccine before being transported to various vaccination centres from a regional vaccine store in Koraput. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

A vaccine van transports the vaccine to various vaccination centres from a regional vaccine store in Koraput. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Health workers carry a box containing the vaccine before being transported to various vaccination centres from a regional vaccine store in Koraput. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui 

Reena Jani, 34, a health worker, rides on her neighbour's motorcycle as she travels to Mathalput Community Health Centre to receive the vaccine in Koraput. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui