The Union government has done away with the 9 am to 5 pm timeline of vaccinating individuals in the second phase of Covid-19 inoculation drive. Hospitals now have the freedom to administer vaccines round-the-clock as per an individual’s convenience, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said on Twitter. This was done to accelerate the speed of vaccination, he added.
“To increase the speed of vaccination the government has abolished the time constraint. Citizens of the country can now get vaccinated 24x7 at their convenience,” tweeted Vardhan.
Vardhan also said that the Prime Minister understands very well the value of the citizen’s time as well as their health. “PM Shri Narendra Modi understands the value of citizen’s health as well as their time,” Vardhan's tweet said in Hindi.
Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Tuesday announced at a press conference about the timeline of vaccination. Bhushan declared that the previous timeframe for vaccination between 9 am to 5 pm has been done away with in the Co-WIN 2.0 app. Bhushan maintained that ultimately it is up to the hospitals to decide whether they want to continue administering vaccines after 5 pm or not.
"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," said Bhushan.
{{/usCountry}}"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," said Bhushan.
{{/usCountry}}The second phase of vaccination commenced all over the country from March 1. Till 7 am on March 3, more than 1.56 crore doses have been administered throughout the country through 3,12,188 sessions, said the Union health ministry.