Asia Today: India is expanding its vaccination campaign

NEW DELHI – India has expanded its COVID-19 vaccination campaign beyond health care and frontline workers, offering the insights to the elderly and those with endangered medical illnesses.

Those now eligible for the vaccine include people over 60, as well as those over 45 who have illnesses such as heart disease or diabetes that make them vulnerable to severe COVID-19 disease. The paintings will be donated free of charge at government hospitals and will also be sold at more than 10,000 private hospitals at a fixed price of 250 rupees, or $ 3.40, per bullet.

Among those first installed on Monday was Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi, 70, received the photo at the All India Medical Science Institute in New Delhi. He pleaded for everyone to be vaccinated, tweeting afterwards, “together, let’s make India COVID-19 for free!”

The nation of nearly 1.4 billion people launched one of the world’s largest vaccination campaigns in January, but distribution has been slow.

New coronavirus infections are on the rise again after months of steady decline, and scientists have discovered alarming variants of the virus that they fear could accelerate infections or prescribe vaccines or treatments that do not. not so useful. Vaccinating more people is a priority, with the Indian Ministry of Health on Sunday urging states to “not reduce the guard” and “miss out on the benefits of last year’s hard work gone. ”

India has recorded more than 11 million cases, ranking second in the world behind the United States, with more than 157,000 deaths in the country from COVID-19.

Other developments around the Asia-Pacific region:

– The Philippines has launched a vaccination campaign to prevent one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in Southeast Asia. However, the campaign has procurement problems and public tensions. Cabinet officials, along with health and military and police personnel, were among the first to receive the vaccine in six hospitals Monday in Metropolitan Manila, after President Rodrigo Duterte and top officials another 600,000 doses received on Sunday of COVID-19 vaccine given by China. The Philippines was among the last countries in Southeast Asia to receive the first batch of vaccine due to delivery delays even though they have recorded more than 576,000 infections, including 12,318 deaths, the highest numbers in Southeast Asia after Indonesia. Locks and quarantine restrictions have put Manila’s economy back in one of the worst recessions in the region and have boosted unemployment and hunger.