Gangtok, Apr 21 (PTI) Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang on Wednesday announced that the state government will provide free COVID-19 vaccine to all citizens between 18 to 45 years.

He said the state government will bear the cost of the vaccines of the people in the age group of 18-45 if the Centre does not bear the cost.

Tamang asked Chief Secretary S C Gupta to prepare the details in this regard.

Meanwhile, the state reported 50 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, pushing the coronavirus tally to 6,846, an official said on Wednesday.

The new cases were detected in East Sikkim district (31), West Sikkim (16), South Sikkim (2) and North Sikkim district (1) state Information Education and Communication (IEC) member Sonam Bhutia said.

Sikkim now has 536 active COVID-19 cases, while 6,023 patients have recovered from the disease, he said.

The COVID-19 death toll in the state is 136, Bhutia said, adding that 151 patients have migrated to other states.

The state has so far tested 88,558 samples for COVID- 19 including 447 samples in the last 24 hours, he added. PTI

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)