People aged above 45 years to get vaccinated from April 1st

All people above the age of 45 years can get the vaccine for Covid19 administered to themselves from April 1st onwards, according to the Indian government.

The Union Cabinet came to the decision and on Tuesday, Union minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters, "It has been decided that from April 1, the vaccine will open for everybody above 45 years of age. We request that all those who are eligible should immediately register and get vaccinated."

He further said, "Our appeal is that all above 45 years should take vaccine as early as possible, that will provide them the shield against coronavirus and they should register for getting vaccinated."

The announcement gives way from the beginning of next month to the revised eligibility requirements which will add 45-year-olds without comorbidities to the list of qualifying recipients of the vaccine.

Javadekar commented on the current vaccination drive, "Till now 4.85 Crore doses have been administered. More than 4 crore people have received a single dose while about 80 lakh people have received their second doses," he added, "In February, the daily average (for vaccinations) was 3,77,000. This rose to 15,54,000 in March, a rise of more than 4 times. Last week this rose to more than 20 lakh and now it has moved beyond 32 lakhs daily."

Javadekar stated, "One has to continue using masks and maintaining social distancing and washing hands is also important, but vaccination is the only shield."

The update in the vaccine drive comes in the background of surging positive Covid19 cases in India along with the new UK variant being found in 81 percent of the 401 Covid19 positive samples sent over by Punjab for genome sequencing. The Union Minister also informed the reporters of 795 being the total number of cases with the UK, South Africa and Brazil variants of the coronavirus in India.