Free COVID-19 vaccines for all Indian adults as Modi hails yoga 'shield'
21 June, 2021
India exposed free vaccinations to all or any adults so that they can bolster its inoculation drive on Monday (Jun 21), as Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off a muted International Yoga Day hailing the practice's "protective" properties against COVID-19.
The country's vaccination drive has significantly slowed lately because of a shortage of jabs and hesitancy, even while it battled a vicious surge in cases in April and May that overwhelmed the healthcare system in lots of places.
Case numbers have since fallen sharply and the authorities have again relaxed many restrictions, sparking fears of another wave.
The federal government had expanded the vaccine rollout to include all adults aged below 45 on May 1, but states and hostipal wards had to procure and purchase the shots themselves for the younger age group, leading to confusion and shortages.
But New Delhi later changed tack, announcing it would procure 75 per cent of vaccine supplies and distribute them to states in order that they can inoculate persons for free.
Up to now it has administered 275 million shots, with barely 4 % of men and women fully vaccinated.
The federal government aims to inoculate all of India's almost 1.1 billion adults by the finish of the year.
"The vaccination drive is expected to grab speed now ... the daily vaccination has picked up during the last week and is likely to strengthen further," community health expert Rajib Dasgupta told AFP.
"However, both existing inequities and hesitancy merit deeper attention to make this successful."
The free rollout came as Modi marked the annual Yoga Day event with an early-morning address to the country since it emerges from the surge, saying that the practice had again proved itself to be a source of "inner strength".
"When I speak to frontline warriors, they tell me they have adopted yoga as a protective shield within their fight coronavirus. Doctors have strengthened themselves with yoga and also used yoga to treat their patients," Modi said.
Public parks were re-opened in Delhi on Monday just with time, but the number of events for Yoga Day was scale back around the country for the next year running as a result of the pandemic.
Yoga Day - proposed by Modi and adopted by the US in 2014 - is observed mostly in India, but also worldwide on the Northern Hemisphere's longest day.
Through the entire pandemic, India's government has touted yoga and herbal medicines - sales of which have boomed - to protect and give relief to persons infected with the virus.
But evidence is scant and the claims have faced pushback from India's doctors, who wore black armbands last month to protest Baba Ramdev, a guru with ties to the Modi administration who has said yoga could cure COVID-19.
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