People line up for jabs as drive opens to 45+
Govt says Covid-19 vaccination will be held throughout April, including on gazetted holidays
NEW DELHI: India began vaccinating thousands of people above the age of 45 on Thursday in its biggest push yet against a surging coronavirus that has hit the highest daily count since early October, officials said.
The world’s second most populous country aims to immunise 400 million people after expanding the programme, which had been restricted to the over-60s and people with serious health conditions, said a government official.
“Our requirement is 400 million people to be vaccinated. That is our minimum requirement, our target,” said an official, who did not wish to be identified.
“Right now we are dealing with an emergency situation. Whatever we have, we will use it,” the official added.
People lined up across vaccination centres to get the shot on Thursday.
“We have been saying from the beginning, everywhere and on social media, that please open up the vaccination programme, let everyone get it and be free from tension,” said Madhav Singh Rathore, 53, a sales
man at a clothes store, who sat among a line of people at New Delhi’s Max Hospital waiting to get the injection.
Among the prominent figures who took their first shot on Thursday were Union minister Piyush Goyal, Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy, and his wife.
The central government also said on Thursday that Covid-19 vaccinations will be conducted in public and private medical centres throughout the month of April, including on gazetted holidays. The Centre has written to all states to make necessary arrangements for the same, aiming to exponentially expand the countrywide vaccination drive. Walk-in registrations will also be open, but only after 3pm. Since government-specified comorbidity isn’t a criterion anymore, a medical certificate from a registered medical practitioner is not required. Vaccination is being held in close to 50,000 centres across the country, of which about 6,000 are in the private sector.
“This step has been taken after detailed deliberations with the states/UTs on March 31 to optimally utilise all COVID-19 vaccination centres across the public and private sectors to ensure a rapid increase in the pace and coverage of the vaccination,” read an official statement.
“This decision is in line with the graded and pro-active approach employed by the Indian government,” it added.
India kicked off its inoculation programme in January focused on health workers, then the elderly and those with co-morbid conditions, saying it wanted to cover the most vulnerable first.
At least 65 million vaccine doses have been administered in the country since the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination began on January 16 with
healthcare workers as the beneficiaries. Vaccination of frontline workers began on February 2. The second phase started on March 1 to also include people above 60 and those between 45 and 59 years of age with specific comorbidities. So far, first doses of vaccine have been administered to 8,260,293 healthcare workers, and 5,250,704 have got the second dose as well. As many as 9,174,171 frontline workers have taken the first dose and 3,945,796 of them have got the second dose as well.
The pace has picked up recently, with the country averaging about 2.2 million doses every day last week.
Adding to the pressure on the government, the daily rise in cases has quadrupled in the space of a month as most of India has reopened for business and travel curbs have been lifted.
Thursday’s expansion in vaccination drive, experts said, will not only improve overall vaccination numbers, but will also help in slowing down disease transmission as the country grapples with the second wave of infections.
Data released by the health ministry on Thursday showed 72,330 new Covid-19 infections, the highest since October 11.
The death toll rose to 162,927 with 459 single-day new casualties, the highest in 116 days. Maharashtra reported the highest daily new cases at 39,544, followed by Chhattisgarh with 4,563, and Karnataka reported 4,225 new cases. The country’s active caseload reached 584,055.
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, and Punjab account for 78.9% of the total active cases in the country.
India’s overall caseload stood at 12.22 million, making it the third worst affected globally, behind the United States and Brazil.