Vaccinations will be opened to all above 18 from May 1, the government announced today after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a series of meetings over India’s response to record daily surges in Covid cases.
All adults will be vaccinated and states can buy vaccines directly from makers in the “liberalised and accelerated Phase 3 strategy of COVID-19 vaccination”, the government said on a day the country reported a new high of 2.73 lakh cases in a day.
India began inoculating people in January using two Covid vaccines – Serum Institute of India’s Covishield developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and Bharat Biotech’s made-in-India Covaxin. So far, the government had allowed vaccinations only for health workers, frontline workers and those above 45 in a centrally controlled process.
In recent weeks, states like Maharashtra, Delhi and Punjab had called for opening up vaccinations and had also complained about running out of vaccine stocks.
In a comment that became controversial in the state versus centre tussle, a senior official said: “The aim is never to vaccinate whoever wants it, but always whoever needs it.”
While vaccinations have been slow compared to the centre’s target, the country has clocked over two lakh cases daily in the past few days.
Recently, the government fast-tracked approvals for foreign vaccines cleared in other countries.
In his meetings today, PM Modi stressed that vaccination was “the biggest weapon” in the fight against the coronavirus and urged doctors to encourage more and more patients to get vaccinated.
“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 of time,” said the PM.
Pricing, procurement, eligibility and administering of vaccines will be flexible in the latest round of the world’s largest vaccination drive.
Vaccine manufacturers have been incentivized to scale up their production and release up to 50 per cent of their supply to states and in the open market at a declared price.
