Vaccine, March 3: Day after the government decided to allow private hospitals not affiliated to Ayushman Bharat, CGHS and state schemes to be included as centres for administrating the inoculations, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said the Centre has removed time constraint to increase the speed of COVID Vaccine dose.
Taking to Twitter, Harsh Vardhan wrote in Hindi: “People can get vaccinated 24×7 at their convenience. Prime Minister Narendra Modi understands the value of both time and health of citizens.”
सरकार ने #vaccination की रफ़्तार बढ़ाने के लिए समय की बाध्यता समाप्त कर दी है। देश के नागरिक अब 24×7अपनी सुविधानुसार टीका लगवा सकते हैं।
PM श्री @narendramodi जी देश के नागरिकों के स्वास्थ्य के साथ-साथ उनके समय की कीमत बखूबी समझते हैं।#VaccineAppropriateBehavior pic.twitter.com/cpKVlXurvL
— Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) March 3, 2021
The Union Health Minister was replying to a news report that said private hospitals can choose any time window to vaccinate people.
The Centre also said that the hospitals don’t necessarily have to stick to a fixed schedule to vaccinate beneficiaries against the killer virus and can extend or advance the vaccination schedule any day.
Also Read: PM Modi to virtually launch vaccination drive and CO-WIN app on Jan 16
This will ramp up the Covid-19 vaccination exercise as more people will become eligible for the life-saving vaccine doses.
Also, the flexible schedule allowed by the Centre is applicable to both private and government hospitals since those involved in the vaccination, drive are linked by the government’s CoWIN app and website.
This will also help to avoid crowding at vaccination sites.
‘Over 50 lakh registrations on Co-WIN portal since Monday’
More than 50 lakh people have registered themselves on the Co-WIN portal, without any system glitch, since the window opened on 1 March, the government said, adding that around 5 lakh eligible beneficiaries over 60 or those aged between 45 to 60 years with comorbidities have received the first COVID Vaccine dose till Tuesday evening.
The vaccination drive for the above said group began on Monday morning, and the registration opened at 9 am on the Co-WIN portal.
Eligible beneficiaries can register and book an appointment for Covid-19 vaccination using the Co-WIN 2.0 portal or through other IT applications such as Aarogya Setu.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has said that the timeline of vaccinating between 9 am to 5 pm has been done away with.
After one has taken the first shot, the second vaccine jab will be automatically rescheduled at the same hospital, but if one is not in the city one can “schedule one’s appointment there also“, a government official said. “We will take care to ensure one doesn’t get two different vaccines at two jabs.”
