Indian Medical Association demands free COVID-19 vaccination for all

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking for vaccination to be open to all adults and vaccination certificates be made compulsory for “entering public spaces” and accessing goods via the public distribution system.
“As there is acute spurt of this disease as a measure to immediate break the chain, limited period continuous lockdown shall be implemented especially for all the non-essential areas like cinema, cultural and religious events, sports, etc,” the letter adds. Vaccines should be made available free of cost at the nearest available centres.
The association attributes the surge to the “emergent, complacent mass gatherings” without masks, non-compliance with COVID-19 appropriate behaviours and the deterrent mutations in the virus. They advocated “zero tolerance” against the non-compliance of COVID-19 appropriate behaviours, increasing availability of hospital beds, oxygen cylinders and “enthusiastic engagement” of frontline health workers, adequate health care protective gear.
India’s daily new cases continue to rise.
There were 96,982 new cases registered in the last 24 hours, as per an update from the Health Ministry.
Eight States — Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat — have showed a steep rise in the COVID-19 daily new cases, contributing nearly 80.04% of the new cases.
Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 47,288. It is followed by Chhattisgarh with 7,302 while Karnataka reported 5,279 new cases. More than 4.3 million vaccination doses were administered in the last 24 hours, the highest single day vaccination coverage in the country so far.
Source – Thehindu