The Wider Image: The 1,700km journey to deliver coronavirus vaccine to India's rural health workers
Reena Jani, 34, a health worker, cooks a meal before travelling to Mathalput Community Health Centre to receive the vaccine developed by Oxford/AstraZeneca, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, at her home in Pendajam village in Koraput, India, January 16, 2021. 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. When she first learned she was to be vaccinated, Jani said she wasn't worried. Then she heard a rumour. "Someone told me that people are fainting, they are developing fever and some are dying after taking the injection," she said. "That is why I was frightened." REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui SEARCH "SIDDIQUI OXFORD/ASTRAZENECA" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES