Vaccination age limit of 45 years should be reduced: Maha minister Nawab Malik

The Centre on April 1 had started the third phase of its nationwide vaccination drive where doses are being administered to people of age 45 and above. “The age limit should be reduced for states which are most affected by Covid-19 and vaccination should be allowed,” Malik was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Maharashtra minority minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik said on Tuesday the age limit of 45 years for getting vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) should be reduced. The Centre on April 1 had started the third phase of its nationwide vaccination drive where doses are being administered to people of age 45 and above.

Malik also demanded vaccinations should be done for all journalists that are operating on the field. (HT file photo)

“The age limit should be reduced for states which are most affected by Covid-19 and vaccination should be allowed,” Malik was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. He also demanded vaccinations should be done for all journalists that are operating on the field.

Malik’s appeal comes a week after Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 5 where he requested Modi to lower the age of vaccinating people to 25 years ‘as the states facing the surge are having to place curbs to safeguard lives of the population.’ Thackeray also said if more young and working population is inoculated, then the intensity of cases will be much lower than the treatment they need at present.

Maharashtra has so far vaccinated 10,529,376 beneficiaries against the coronavirus disease till now, according to the Union health ministry’s update at 7am. More than 9.52 million of these beneficiaries have received the first dose while 1,008,651 have been given both the doses.

Earlier, a war of words broke out between the Maha-Vikas Aghadi led state government and the Centre regarding the shortage of vaccine doses. Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope claimed on April 8 the state was short of doses and demanded 4 million jabs per week from the Centre. He also said that Maharashtra was provided far less doses as compared to Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana.

Last week, several vaccination centres in Mumbai, Panvel and Pune district had stopped their inoculation drive due to the shortage reported by the state government.

However, Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said on April 8 the Centre was continuously monitoring and enhancing supply of doses. Countering Tope’s allegations, Vardhan tweeted that Maharashtra and Rajasthan had received the highest number of doses across the country.

He also slammed the MVA government by saying it was diverting the attention from its failure of managing the pandemic by raising the issue of vaccines. “The inability of the Maharashtra government to act responsibly is beyond comprehension. To spread panic among the people is to compound the folly further. Vaccine supplies are being monitored on a real-time basis, and state governments are being apprised regularly about it. Allegations of vaccine shortage are utterly baseless,” the health minister said.