Vaccination for beneficiaries between 18 and 44 years of age would not begin from the scheduled date of May 1 in Madhya Pradesh, announced Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has also said that vaccination for beneficiaries aged above 18 years will not begin before September.

Reddy said that Andhra Pradesh will start vaccinating people aged between 18 and 45 years only in September, once the vaccination for people aged above 45 years concludes.

 MP CM said that both the manufacturers of Covid-19 vaccines - Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India - have expressed their inability to supply vaccines to the state before May 1. However, vaccination of 45 plus beneficiaries will recommence from May after remaining suspended for two days - April 29 and April 30 -- for preparations for vaccination for 18-plus beneficiaries. Chouhan reviewed the vaccination programme through video-conferencing on Thursday. He said that vaccination will be free for all the beneficiaries.

 He said vaccination would begin as soon as the state received vaccines in adequate numbers. He said that vaccination centres should preferably not be established in hospitals to reduce the chances of the beneficiaries getting infected. So far, 80.76 lakh doses of vaccine have been administered in the state. While 70.22 lakh beneficiaries have received the first dose, 10.54 lakh have received both the doses.

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