Vaccine for all above 45 years from April 1: Govt
New Delhi: Come April 1 and all above 45 years will get their doses of Covid vaccine without presenting any comorbidity certificate as the government on Tuesday announced opening vaccination for all above 45 years of age and requested them to get registered for the inoculation.
The vaccination for other age groups would also be opened in a phased manner. So far, all people above the age of 60 and those above 45 with comorbidities are being vaccinated, apart from medical professionals and frontline workers.
However, the government has also stated that as of now there is no plan to implement lockdown in the county as the Centre is keeping an eye on the sudden rise in COVID-19 cases in certain states.
Briefing reporters on the decisions taken by the Cabinet after its meeting, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said: "Now, even people without comorbidities who are more than 45 years of age can get vaccinated. It's requested that people who are entitled, get themselves registered to take the jabs."
"The Cabinet also decided that the second dose of the vaccine can be taken between four and eight weeks, on the advice of doctors. It was allowed to be taken between four to six weeks earlier but scientists have now said taking the second dose between four and eight weeks gives improved results," he said, adding that the Union Cabinet discussed the vaccination drive which has already achieved good progress.
"Today after discussion and on the advice of the task force and scientists, it was decided that from April 1 the vaccine will open for everybody above 45 years of age. We request that all eligible people should immediately register from April 1 and get vaccinated as it is the shield against the disease," Javadekar told reporters.
"Our appeal is that all above 45 years should take the vaccine as early as possible, that will provide them the shield against Coronavirus and they should register for getting vaccinated," he said, adding that vaccines are available in enough numbers and there is no scarcity and the supply chains and supply line is intact. "I am sure everyone will welcome this decision and come forward to get vaccinated," he said.
With 15,80,568 vaccine doses being administered on Tuesday, India crossed a significant milestone in the fight against Covid as the country's total vaccination figure crossed over 5 crore till 7 pm.
The doubling time of COVID-19 cases in India has decreased from 504.4 days on March 1 to 202.3 days on March 23, the ministry said on Tuesday, highlighting that six states have reported a surge in daily new cases and together account for 80.90 per cent of the new infections reported in a day.
Amid a spike in COVID-19 cases in some parts of the country, the Centre on Tuesday asked all states and Union Territories to enhance the proportion of RT-PCR tests, strictly enforce test-track-treat protocol and speed up the pace of vaccination to cover all priority groups.
Issuing fresh guidelines for April, the Ministry of Home Affairs said keeping in view the fresh surge in COVID-19 cases, the new positive cases, detected as a result of intensive testing, need to be isolated or quarantined at the earliest and provided timely treatment.
The state governments and UT administrations should strictly enforce the test-track-treat protocol in all parts of the country, ensure observance of COVID-19-appropriate behaviour by everyone and scale up the vaccination drive to cover all the target groups, the guidelines said.
The total number of cases with the UK, South Africa and Brazil variants of SARS-CoV-2 in the country has reached 795, the ministry said on Tuesday.
From 400 cases reported on March 18, the infections by mutant strains have increased to 795 in the country.
Eighty-one per cent of the 401 samples sent by the government for genome sequencing have tested positive for the UK variant of COVID-19, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said on Tuesday.
