India in third phase of vaccine with 65 million already immunised

India is in the third phase of its coronavirus vaccination drive, with everyone above 45 now eligible for the jab.

Saturday, 3rd April 2021

India in third phase of vaccine with 65 million already immunised

India is in the third phase of its coronavirus vaccination drive, with everyone above 45 now eligible for the jab. More than 65 million doses have been administered so far, essentially to frontline workers and people above 60. The world's biggest vaccination drive aims to cover 250 million people by July, but authorities say the pace needs to pick up very to meet the target. The third phase begins amid a sharp uptick in Covid-19 cases. Also read: Trinidad and Tobago to finally get 40,000 doses of vaccine from India India's Covid caseload also dropped sharply by the time it began vaccinating people early this year. It was staying under 15,000 infections daily. But cases started to spike again in March, largely driven by poor test-and-trace and lax safety protocols. On Wednesday, the nation recorded 72,019 new cases and 457 deaths - the sharpest daily rise since December. Also read: Trinidad & Tobago foreign ministry releases joint statement with Indian High Commission Since the pandemic began, India has built more than 11.7 million cases and over 160,000 deaths. It's the third-highest amount of Covid-19 diseases in the system after the United States. How is the rollout going? India launched, but it was restricted to healthcare workers and frontline staff - a sanitation worker grew the first Indian to get the vaccine. From 1 March, the eligibility has been expanded to accommodate individuals over 60 and others between 45 and 59 who have other diseases. Also read: Jamaica receives 50,000 doses of vaccine from India The country's drugs regulator has announced the green light to two vaccines - one generated by AstraZeneca with Oxford University (Covishield) and one by Indian firm Bharat Biotech (Covaxin). Several others are at distinctive stages of trials. Vaccine gifts India delivered vaccines all across the world including in the Caribbean. In February, Dominica became the first country in the region to get Oxford Astrazeneca coronavirus vaccine from India. After that more than 200,000 doses were delivered to Antigua and Barbuda, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, Jamaica, Suriname and Guyana.