Everyone above 18 years eligible for Covid vaccine from May 1: Centre
New Delhi: The Centre has finally decided to open vaccination for all above 18 years from May 1 as it announced its liberalised and accelerated Phase 3 strategy of Covid-19 vaccination on Monday.
The decision in this regard was taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the day when the country reported its highest daily infections at 2,73,810 with 1,619 deaths, and a day after former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wrote a letter to the incumbent PM suggesting an increase in vaccination coverage by lowering the age for inoculation.
The announcement came after a meeting chaired by Modi where it was noted that the "government has been working hard for over a year to ensure that maximum numbers of Indians are able to get the vaccine in the shortest possible time."
At the meeting, the Prime Minister reportedly said "India is vaccinating people at world record pace and we will continue this with even greater momentum."
Notably, the country has vaccinated over 12.7 crore beneficiaries till now and states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat have vaccinated over one crore beneficiaries till Monday.
The total tally of confirmed Covid-19 cases has reached 1,50,61,919, which includes 19,29,329 active cases, 1,29,53,821 recoveries and 1,78,769 deaths. The country reported the highest ever 1,619 fatalities due to the infection in the last 24 hours and recorded 1,44,178 recoveries in a single day.
Importantly, the Centre has given the flexibility to all the stakeholders to customise to local needs as the government has allowed the states, private hospitals and industrial establishments to procure Covid-19 vaccines directly from manufacturers — who can release up to 50 per cent of their supply for this purpose — at a pre-declared price.
As per the Health ministry's official statement, everyone above the age of 18 years is eligible to get the shot against Covid-19 and vaccine manufacturers have been incentivised to further scale up their production, as well as attract new national and international players.
Notably, the stock meant for vaccinations at Central government centres, which is provided free of cost, would not be shared with states/hospitals for inoculation of eligible beneficiaries belonging to 18 years and above. However, the vaccination for previous categories — healthcare workers, frontline workers and those above 45 — will continue.
The vaccine manufacturers have been empowered to release up to 50 per cent of their supply to state governments and in the open market at a pre-declared price, it said, adding that manufacturers would "transparently" make an advance declaration of the price for 50 per cent supply that would be available to state governments and in the open market, before May 1, 2021.
As per the ministry officials, the beneficiaries above 18 years would be allowed to register themselves through CoWIN app and can also get registered at the vaccination centres. The Health ministry would soon make changes in the CoWIN platform to allow registration of new age-group beneficiaries.
With a total of 31,03,474 vaccine doses given till 8 pm on Monday, the cumulative number of Covid-19 shots administered in the country stood at 12,69,56,032 till the 94th day of the nationwide drive. The country has also witnessed the highest number of operational COVID Vaccination Centres as a total of 73,600 CVCs were operational in a single day.
