Covid-19: Locals get gold nose pin, hand blender at a vaccine camp in Gujarat's Rajkot

The move is to encourage more people to get vaccinated as the drive is now open to anyone above the age of 45 years.

The Union health ministry said that getting vaccinated against Covid-19 is voluntary, but the goldsmith community in Gujarat's Rajkot area has added some freebies so that more people get encouraged to get inoculated. And the freebies include a gold nose pin for women and a hand blender for men who take the vaccine shot at the camp set up by the community, news agency ANI reported.

Free gifts for those who get vaccinated at the camp of the goldsmith community in Rajkot. (ANI)

This comes as the government has opened the vaccination drive from April 1 for anyone above the age of 45 years. Till 8pm on Saturday, a total of 7,44,42,267 vaccine doses have been registered across the country, including those of healthcare workers, frontline workers and people above the age of 45 years, with and without co-morbidity issues.

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With over 93,000 new infections recorded in the last 24 hours, the Covid-19 situation in India is inching towards the peak that was witnessed in September 2020. On September 11, India recorded 96,551 fresh cases, which remains the highest single-day rise so far. As cases are again rising and moving towards that peak, the authorities are focusing more on getting maximum people vaccinated as soon as possible. Several state governments have urged the Centre to relax the age restriction and make it open to all.

Though Gujarat is not among the top five states seeing the highest spike, the state recorded a four-fold hike in the number of active Covid-19 cases between February 3 and April 3. On Saturday, the state reported 2,815 new infections, the highest single-day addition. Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Ahmedabad are some of the worst-hit areas of the state.

As the vaccination drive has been widened, the Centre has asked all states and Union territories to stop fresh registration of healthcare workers and frontline workers, but those who are already registered and have not yet got inoculated will get their jabs.

(With agency inputs)