All Indians above 45 years to get vaccinated from 1 April

So far, all people above the age of 60 and those above 45 with comorbidities were being vaccinated.

From 1 April, people above the age of 45 will not require a comorbidity certificate to get vaccinated, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said on Tuesday. Anybody suffering from serious cardiovascular ailments, diabetes, hypertension, cancer, AIDS, and persons with disabilities had been included in the list of people suffering from comorbidities.

The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on 16 January with healthcare workers getting inoculated first. The vaccination drive for frontline workers started from 2 February. The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination commenced on 1 March for those over 60 years of age and for people aged 45 and above with specified comorbid conditions.

The minister said that India has till now vaccinated 4.85 crore people. "In the last 24 hours, 32.54 lakh people got vaccinated. In February, the daily average was around 3.50 lakh every day but in March, the daily average [of vaccination] has reached around 15 lakh," Mr. Javadekar said.

Punjab reports new cases of UK variant

Meanwhile, 81 per cent of the latest 401 samples sent by Punjab for genome sequencing turned out positive for the new UK COVID-19 variant, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said on Tuesday.

He appealed to the people to get vaccinated even as he urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to widen the vaccination ambit to cover those below 60, since the UK variant mutant has been found to be infecting young people more.

Expressing concern over the situation, he stressed the need for the Central government to urgently open up the vaccination for a bigger section of the populace.