AHMEDABAD: Starting May 1, the Gujarat government will provide free of cost COVID-19 vaccines to those between 18 and 45 years of age, and an order of 1.5 crore doses has been placed for that purpose, an official said on Sunday.
This decision was taken during a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.
The state government will buy one crore doses of Covishield vaccine from Pune's Serum Institute of India and 50 lakh doses of Covaxin from Bharat Biotech in Hyderabad, an official release said.
Around 6,000 government and private vaccination centres have been created across the state, where 1.13 crore beneficiaries have been vaccinated so far, of whom 19.3 lakh have received the second dose as well.
The government has extended the vaccination campaign to the district and taluka levels in a planned manner and the chief minister directed the officials to make arrangements for vaccination of every eligible person in the age group of 18 to 45 years in the state, it said.
Beneficiaries in this age group will have to register themselves online for the vaccine on the Cowin Portal starting April 28, the release added.
The central government had recently announced that everyone above 18 years of age will be eligible for the vaccination from May 1.
The state on Sunday recorded 14,296 new coronavirus cases, its highest single-day spike since the pandemic broke out, the state health department said.
This increased its infection tally to 4,96,033.
The state also recorded its highest one-day COVID-19 fatality count of 157, which took the death toll to 6,328, it said.
As 6,727 patients got discharge from hospitals on Sunday, the recovery count rose to 3,74,699, the department said in its release.
With this, the state's recovery rate stands at 75.54 per cent.
Ahmedabad district reported the highest number of 5,864 new cases, followed by Surat with 2,103 cases, Vadodara 760, and Rajkot 676.
Among other districts, Jamnagar reported 674 new cases, Bhavnagar 379, and Junagadh 251.
Out of the 157 deaths, Ahmedabad recorded 29, Surat 27, Vadodara 19, and Rajkot and Jamnagar 14 each, it said.
As many as 1,12,95,536 beneficiaries have been administered COVID-19 vaccines in Gujarat so far, out of which 19,32,370 have also received the second dose, the department said.
The government said it has also placed orders to procure 1.
50 crore doses of vaccines for the drive to cover beneficiaries between the age group of 18-45 that will begin from May 1.
The state will procure 1 crore Covishield vaccines, and 50 lakh doses of Covaxin for the purpose, it said.
The total number of COVID-19 cases in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu rose to 6,689 with 208 new cases and 106 recoveries.
The UT has so far reported four deaths, officials said.
Gujarat's COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases 4,96,033, new cases 14,296, death toll 6,328, discharged 3,74,699, active cases 1,15,006, people tested so far - figures not released.