All people above 45 years of age can get vaccinated against Covid-19

from April 1, the Centre said on Tuesday amid a surge in cases in

several states.

"I appeal to every citizen who is 45 or above to register for

vaccination," Union minister Prakash Javadekar said, announcing the

expansion of the drive that started in January.

According to the minister, 4.85 crore people had received at

least one dose of the Covid vaccine and 80 lakh have received the

second dose. More than 32.53 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccine were

administered on March 22, which is the highest single-day vaccination so

far, taking the total number of people inoculated to over 4.8 crore,

the health ministry said.The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 with

healthcare workers getting inoculated and vaccination of the frontline

workers started from February 2. The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination

commenced on March 1 for those who are over 60 years and for people aged

45 and above with specific comorbid conditions.

Tuesday’s decision, taken by the cabinet on the basis of the advice

of the Coronavirus Task Force and experts, comes on a day the  health

ministry said the doubling time of Covid-19 cases in India had decreased

from 504.4 days on March 1 to 202.3 days on March 23.

Six states _ Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh

and Tamil Nadu _ have reported a surge in daily new cases and together

account for 80.90 per cent of the new infections reported in a day.

Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at 24,645

(60.53 per cent). It is followed by Punjab with 2,299 cases and Gujarat

with 1,640 new cases.

Ten states -- Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi,

Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Haryana and Rajasthan -- are

displaying an upward trajectory in the daily new Covid-19 cases, the

ministry said.