COVID-19 vaccination opens 24x7: Government

A medic administers the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine to a senior citizen at Government Polyclinic in Gurugram on Wednesday. Pic/PTI

The government has lifted the time restriction on receiving COVID-19 vaccine jabs so as to increase the pace of immunisation, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Wednesday. People can now get vaccinated round-the-clock according to their convenience, he tweeted.

"The government has lifted the time restriction to increase the speed of vaccination. People can now get vaccinated 24x7 according to their convenience... " Vardhan tweeted in Hindi.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan told a press conference on Tuesday that the timeline of vaccinating the beneficiaries from 9 am to 5 pm has been done away with and it is up to the hospitals to decide whether they want to continue administering the vaccines even after that.

"Co-WIN 2.0 does not provide 9 am-5 pm vaccination sessions. It has done away with that timeline. If a hospital has the capacity, the system permits it to do vaccination even after 5 pm in consultation with the state government. This has been briefed both to the state governments as well as the private and government hospitals," he said.

The second dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 started being administered from February 13 for those who have completed 28 days since the receipt of the first dose. The vaccination of frontline workers (FLWs) started on February 2.

The next phase of the COVID-19 vaccination commenced from March 1 for people over 60 years of age and those aged 45 and above with specified co-morbid conditions.

More than 1.56 crore (1,56,20,749) vaccine doses were administered in the country through 3,12,188 sessions, according to a provisional report till Wednesday 7 am.

1,11,39,516
Total number of cases in the country as of today

1,57,346
Total no. of deaths due to the virus in India

1,08,12,044
Patients Recovered and discharged in India as of today

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