Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a meeting with vaccine manufacturers via video conferencing at 6 pm on Tuesday, April 20. This would be his third interaction with focus groups, after doctors and pharma companies on Monday, April 19. During the meeting with vaccine makers, PM Modi will likely take some key decisions around ramping up the production of vaccine doses.
In a meeting chaired by the prime minister on Monday, an important decision of allowing the vaccination to everyone above the age of 18 from May 1 was taken. PM Modi said the government has been working hard for over a year to ensure that the maximum number of Indians are able to get the vaccine in the shortest possible time. "India is vaccinating people at a world record pace and we will continue this with even greater momentum," he said.
As India opens vaccination to all those above the age of 18, the country will need to speed up production in order to meet the growing demand. The government has roped in both the public and private sectors to rapidly scale up production as well as dissemination of vaccines as part of the phase-3 strategy.
In phase-3, the National Vaccine Strategy aims at liberalised vaccine pricing and scaling up vaccine coverage. The move will help augment vaccine production and availability while incentivising vaccine manufacturers to rapidly boost production and attract new vaccine manufacturers.
India is battling one of the major crises in recent history as coronavirus cases surge at a faster speed than last year when the economy sunk into recession. The country reported 2,59,170 new COVID-19 cases and 1,761 deaths in the past 24 hours. A total of 1,54,761 people were discharged, health ministry data shows. This takes the overall load to 1.53 crore, including 1.31 crore recoveries and 1.8 lakh deaths. The active case tally has also crossed 20 lakh in India.
Also read: Vaccine for all above 18 from May 1: Key highlights of govt's Phase 3 strategy
Also Read: Delhi under complete lockdown for six days, from tonight till April 26