Starting from April 1, people above 45 years of age, regardless of comorbidities, will stand eligible to take COVID-19 vaccination, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar announced on Tuesday.
Making the announcement which is likely to boost the country’s fight against the resurgent coronavirus, Javadekar urged eligible people to get themselves registered to get vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccines. The Union Minister also assured the nation that there is no paucity of vaccine jabs in the country.
#IndiaFightsCorona
— #IndiaFightsCorona (@COVIDNewsByMIB) March 23, 2021
From 1st April 2021, anyone above 45 years can get #Vaccinated even if he/she has no comorbidities; no need for any certificate.
– Union Minister @PrakashJavdekar
#CabinetDecisions #LargestVaccinationDrive #StaySafe pic.twitter.com/Zt0c2lmvqC
“We have sufficient doses to vaccinate the eligible people. All eligible people should get registered as it is a shield against COVID-19. We appeal all above 45+ should get vaccinated,” Javadekar said while addressing a press conference.
Javadekar also spoke about the UK coronavirus variant that has proven to be more infectious than the original strain. He said that the government is in touch with various states to monitor the cases reported due to the UK coronavirus variants and informed that necessary measures are taken to control its spread.
The decision to allow people above 45 to get vaccinated, irrespective of the existence of underlying diseases, comes on the heels of an increased spike in the total number of COVID-19 cases reported in the country. After the decline in the number of coronavirus cases in the country, the infections are steadily rising, especially after the advent of the UK coronavirus strain that is proved to be more infectious. India on Tuesday recorded 40,715 coronavirus cases, taking the total infection tally to 1,16,86,796. India’s total Active Caseload stands at 3.45 lakh (3,45,377) as of today.
The decision also comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with several chief ministers over the rising caseloads of the coronavirus in the country.
The union ministry of health and family welfare today said that Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu reported a rise in daily new corona cases. The states account for 80.90 per cent of the new infections reported in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit state as 24,645 cases are reported. It is followed by Punjab with 2,299 while Gujarat reported 1,640 new cases.
India has approved the emergency use of the Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech and Covishield from the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Serum Institute of India (SII) in January 2020. It started the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination on 16 January, with healthcare workers and frontline workers among the first ones to get the jabs. In the next phase of the COVID-19 inoculation drive that commenced on 1 March, those who were over 60 years of age and people aged 45 and above with co-morbid conditions were eligible for vaccinations.