New Delhi, Feb 5 (IANS) After months of wait, India is likely to start swine flu vaccination from Feb 19 and tens of thousands of medical practitioners will get the first doses of the imported vaccine to distribute among the people.

The country has received 1.5 million doses of vaccine from multinational pharma firm Sanofi Pasteur in two installments - 500,000 doses Wednesday and one million doses Thursday - a senior health ministry official told IANS.

'The vaccines have arrived and Sanofi's bridge study in the country is getting over by Feb 10. We will take one more week to analyse them. The vaccine will be released for use after that. Most probably vaccination will start from Feb 19,' the official said requesting anonymity.

India has lost 1,260 people to the pandemic virus since India reported its first swine flu death in August last year. So far, swine flu has infected over 29,000 people.

'Doctors and para medics will get the vaccination first,' the official told IANS.