The state of India, Maharashtra, and the union territory of Delhi have called on the central government to lower the age limit for those eligible to take the Covid-19 vaccine amid an increase in new cases.
“If the central government allows us to vaccinate people on a large scale, we can create thousands of facilities in schools, community centers and start a war on the vaccine,” Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Monday.
Since April 1, the Indian government has provided vaccines against Covid-19 to anyone 45 years of age or older.
In Maharashtra, where weekend closures and night curfews have been set until the end of April to curb the spread of the virus, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray reiterated the call for lowering the age threshold .
“If a larger number of our young and working population is vaccinated, the intensity of the cases would be much lower than the treatment they need today,” Thackeray said in his letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, calling for eligibility to go down to all over 25 years of age.
The state of Maharashtra accounts for more than half of the new Covid-19 cases in the country.
India faces a second wave of coronavirus, with more than 100,000 infections reported Monday, the highest one-day rise since the start of the pandemic.
On Tuesday, India reported 96,982 cases, for a total of 12,686,049, including 165,547 deaths, according to the Indian Ministry of Health.