India may not need to vaccinate all of its 1.3 billion people if it manages to inoculate a critical mass and break the transmission of the coronavirus, senior government officials said on Tuesday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who toured the facilities of three vaccine makers over the weekend, has emphasised the importance of a vaccine to rein in Covid-19.

In October, he said that the government was preparing to reach every single citizen as soon as a vaccine was ready.

World Health Organisation experts have pointed to a 65 per cent to 70pc vaccine coverage rate as sufficient to reach population immunity.