Vaccine For All Above 18 Starting May 1
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 can get Covid shots and states can buy doses directly from vaccine-makers in the "liberalized and accelerated Phase 3 strategy of COVID-19 vaccination", the government said, on a day the country reported 2.73 lakh new daily cases in the highest spike since the pandemic broke out a year ago. 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, front line workers and those above 45 in a centrally-controlled process. In his meetings today, PM Modi stressed that vaccination was "the biggest weapon" in the fight against the co...