The Union Cabinet on Tuesday decided to ramp up the nationwide vaccination drive as several states have experienced a surge in Covid-19 cases. Government has announced that every person above the age of 45 years will be eligible for a vaccine shot from April 1. At present, besides healthcare and frontline workers, only citizens above 60 and those over 45 with other illnesses are getting vaccinated.
While announcing the cabinet decision to expand the drive that started in January, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar appealed to every citizen who is 45 or above to register for vaccination. According to him, over 4.85 crore people had received at least one dose of the vaccine. He asserted that there is no shortage of vaccines and more are on the way. The minister informed that the decision has been taken by the Union Cabinet on the consultations of the COVID task force and experts
The government has also approved to expand the dosage interval for Covishield from 28 days to 4-8 weeks. Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan informed that the CoWIN software was being modified to do away with the need for confirmation of comorbidities at the time of registration.
According to the data of the health ministry, in the country, over 48 million people have received at least one dose of vaccine and more than 8 million people have received both the doses. India’s total active caseload has been rising. On Wednesday morning, India recorded 53,476 new cases of COVID-19, which are the highest in a single day this year. Six states including Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, and Tamil Nadu, together account for nearly 81 per cent of the new cases in the country.
