India will be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of 2021, said Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Friday. The announcement came soon after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Centre's handling of COVID-19 and predicted "multiple waves" in the country if vaccinations continued at the current pace.
"India's vaccination will be completed before 2021. The Health Ministry has given a blueprint for how 108 people - with 216 crore doses - will be vaccinated by December. Rahulji... if you're concerned about vaccination then pay attention to Congress ruled states... there is a mess. They are not taking the quota given to them for 18-44 year old beneficiaries from May 1," Mr Javadekar said.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the Delhi the government will now start the process of lifting the lockdown gradually, starting with resumption of construction activities and reopening of factories for one week from Monday.
In the last 24 hours, Delhi reported a positivity rate of around 1.5 percent and around 1,100 new cases, the Chief Minister said.
"It is time to start the unlock process. It should not be the case that people escape coronavirus but die of hunger... We have to maintain a balance between controlling the spread of coronavirus and allowing economic activities," Mr Kejriwal said during an online press briefing.
India's COVID-19 infection tally climbed to 2.75 crore as 1.86 lakh new COVID-19 cases - lowest in 44 days - were reported in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry on Friday.
The death count due to the disease climbed to 3,18,895 with 3,660 fresh fatalities being reported in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.