After dramatic days with daily records of coronavirus cases, India has opened vaccination for all over 18s

India began this Saturday a new phase of its ambitious coronavirus vaccination plan which is now extended to all over 18s, a measure that awaits accelerate the pace of its vaccination campaign to relieve the country of a second virulent wave of infections which breaks daily records.

This new stage, from which more than 500 million people, will allow all population groups born before the January 01, 2002 register via the digital platform COWIN receive the first dose of the vaccine.

In this phase, vaccine manufacturers will provide the 50% of its doses to the central government guarantee an equitable distribution of serums between states, liberalizing the other half for companies and private hospitals.

The price of each dose in public centers across the country was established by Rs 300 ($ 4) for Covishield and Rs 400 ($ 5.40) for Covaxin, after the two companies reduced the price to states to guarantee the vaccine supplement.

Until now, vaccination was open to people over 45, frontline workers and health workers, who received two inoculants of Indian production: Covishield, the AstraZeneca formula developed by the Serum Institute of India (SII); and Covaxin, from the Indian laboratory Bharat Biotech.

In addition, it is expected that the vacuna rusa Sputnik V joined the catalog of tests available to inoculate in the country.

India thus hopes to unlock the health collapse that caused this second wave of infections in a few weeks, in addition to accelerating the rate of inoculations which, so far, has been slower than expected.

However, the new phase of vaccination did not start as planned, as various parts of the country announced their inability to start the program due to lack of dose.

This is the case of the western Maharashtra, including the capital, Bombay, decreed on Friday total suspension of the vaccination plan for three days due to the lack of sufficient units to advance.

Precisely, this coastal region is the most affected by the pandemic: with 62,919 new infections and 828 deaths in the last 24 hours.

For its part, the government of New Delhi has requested that only people by appointment go to vaccination centers, with the aim of avoid the crowds at the gates of medical centers.

Vaccination day in the capital, which also reported serious dose shortage issues throughout the week, began with full normality, with images of people in a long queue near several medical centers while waiting for their turn.

Since the start of the vaccination campaign last January, the country has administered 155 million doses, 2.7 million in the last 24 hours, figures that are far from reaching the 300 million vaccinated who have set a target for the month of July.

The first shipment of medical aid from the United States arrived in the country on Friday, as more supplies are expected from many countries in the coming days. A military transport plane Super galaxy more … than 400 oxygen cylinders, other medical equipment and nearly a million rapid coronavirus tests landed at the international airport of New Delhi, the Indian capital.

(With information from EFE)

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