Covid vaccine for everyone aged above 45 from April 1

Centre has opened Covid vaccination for everyone aged above 45 starting April 1. Briefing media after Cabinet meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar requested all eligible people to immediately register and get vaccinated. He said vaccination is the shield against COVID.He also clarified that vaccines are available in enough number and there is no scarcity.  From April 1, people above the age of 45 will not require a comorbidity certificate to get vaccinated, the minister said.

The minister said that the central government was monitoring the recent spike in Covid-19 cases in several parts of the country. He said that the Centre was in touch with states where numbers are going up. "States are taking their call as per their past experience," he said. Javdekar said that India has till now vaccinated 4.85 crore people. “In the last 24 hours, 32.54 people got vaccines. In February daily average was around 3.50 lakh every day, but in March, the daily average [of vaccination] has reached around 15 lakh," he said. 

Meanwhile, MHA on Tuesday issued new guidelines to tackle the spike in Covid cases in some parts of the country, effective for the month of April. According to guidelines, states can bring in restrictions locally, based on their assessment, but no activity will be restricted outside containment zones. All states must strictly enforce the test-track-treat protocol and ensure Covid-appropriate behavior to check the spread of the coronavirus. States where the proportion of RT-PCR tests is less should rapidly increase them to 70 per cent or more, the Home Ministry says.Based on the Covid-positive cases and the tracking of their contacts, district authorities will need to mark containment zones and notify them on websites.

States have been asked to consider fines or other similar action to strictly enforce Covid-appropriate behavior like masks, sanitizing and distancing in work places and in public, especially in crowded places.The rules say there will be no restriction on inter-state and intra-state movement of people and goods. All activities will be allowed outside the containment zones, with SOPs. This means the government will not stop trains, flights, metros, schools, colleges, hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, multiplexes, parks, yoga centres, gyms and gatherings.