Covid Vaccines In March For People Above 50 Years

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said that India will start administering vaccines to people above the age of 50 in March 2021. Which means, the plan to commence vaccination drive for around 27 crore Indians above the age of 50 will be the priority now.

However, he said that an expert group on vaccination will discuss within states whether the vaccination will free of cost or how to pay if required. He also said that a formal decision on the funding of the vaccination of this group is yet to be taken.

India has commenced administering vaccines on January 16 2021. So far, 80-85% of frontline workers are vaccinated and 20-25 countries will benefit from the vaccine, confirmed Harsh Vardhan. India has approved two vaccines — Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech and Covishield from the Oxford/AstraZeneca.

The Union Ministry also told that no new cases of COVID19 have been reported in 188 districts of the country from the past 7 days and no deaths reported in 18 states and UTs in a span of 24 hours. He further urged people to still be cautious and maintain social distancing,