Uttar Pradesh will now offer the Covid vaccine free of cost from May 1, as India's vaccine net widens to include all people over the age of 18. The decision was taken late on Tuesday night at a virtual cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who last week tested positive for the virus.

Adityanath tweeted: "In the cabinet meeting it has been decided that corona virus vaccination of all the people above 18 years of age in Uttar Pradesh will be made free... Coronavirus will lose, India will win." The health department has been tasked with working out the logistics of this exercise in the most populous state in the country.