Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday chaired a review meeting of the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive in the country, officials said.

Senior officials of the concerned ministries attended the meeting, which was held at a time when 50 cases of the COVID-19 Delta Plus variant have been reported in the country.

The highly transmissible Delta Plus variant was first detected in three states – Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Maharashtra earlier this week and in the following days, it has been detected in Punjab, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.

India’s federal government said on Thursday that distribution of COVID-19 vaccines was being done in a transparent manner based on the population, caseload, utilization efficiency and wastage factors of a state.

The federal health ministry said the country’s national COVID-19 vaccination program was built on scientific and epidemiological evidence, World Health Organization guidelines and global best practices.

The vaccination programme against COVID-19 started in India on Jan. 16 by administering two made-in-India vaccines – Covishield and Covaxin.

Serum Institute of India (SII) is manufacturing AstraZeneca-Oxford University’s Covishield, while Bharat Biotech has partnered with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in manufacturing Covaxin.

Of late Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V was also rolled out in the country.

As per the health ministry so far over 315 million doses have been administered.