FICCI urges Centre to open vaccination for 18-45 years age group

Industry body FICCI has urged the government to ramp up COVID testing across the states and open up the vaccination for the age group 18-45 years, while assuring it of the complete support of the industry in fighting the pandemic.

"We are currently testing about 11 lakh samples a day, while we had reached the level of testing 15 lakh samples a day in January. Further, there is capacity of performing much more tests with 2,440 labs in the country operational for COVID testing, including more than 1,200 from the private sector," FICCI President Uday Shankar said in a letter to the Union Health & Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan.

The states may be advised to utilise the facilities in the private sector to the maximum to achieve the desired testing capacity, he added.

Shankar also urged the government to open up vaccination for the age group of 18-45 years, as this age group has been acting as the superspreaders of infection in the country.

"Given that there is no shortage of vaccines and there is a huge scope of augmenting inoculation capacity through greater involvement of private sector, we urge you to open up vaccination for this age group to help subside the spread of infection as well as severity of cases in the country," he added.

Shankar alsoassured the government of complete support and cooperation of the industry in fighting this crisis.