Indian officials and health experts welcomed a federal government plan to give free COVID-19 shots to all adults as a step in the right direction on Tuesday, but cautioned that vaccinations must be accelerated to prevent new surges in infections, Trend reports citing Reuters.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday the federal government would take over the inoculation programme from Indian states and offer free doses to everyone over the age of 18.
His announcement on national television followed weeks of criticism of a vaccine rollout that has covered fewer than 5% of India's estimated adult population of 950 million. This has left the country vulnerable to another wave of infections after a surge in April-May which government data showed killed 170,000.
"Took him 4 months but after much pressure, he has finally listened to us and implemented what we've been asking all this while," Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal state, wrote on Twitter.