Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Minister for External Affairs (MEA) S Jaishankar received the Covid-19 jab even as more than one million citizens registered themselves on the Co-WIN portal till 1 pm on Monday with India opening up vaccination drive for those over 60 years and within the age bracket of 45 to 59 years with specified comorbidities.
AIIMS chief Dr Randeep Guleria said the Prime Minister’s move to take the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine on the very first day of the inoculation drive should eliminate any hesitancy from the minds of people about the vaccine.
Vaccines provided to beneficiaries at the Government health facilities will be entirely free of cost, while private facilities cannot charge the beneficiary a sum above Rs 250 per person per dose (Rs 150 for vaccines and Rs 100 as operational charges.
As the vaccination programme got underway in other places across the country, Venkaiah, Shah, Jaishankar too was vaccinated on Monday.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik also received their shots.
Similarly, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, his wife, and MP daughter Supriya Sule too received the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine at a civic hospital in Maharashtra while Kumar said vaccines will be provided free to everybody.
He also appealed to everybody to come forward and get themselves vaccinated.
“Happy to share that I took my first dose of #COVID19 vaccine today. Grateful to our scientists, health workers for their race against time to deliver the vaccine to people. Appeal to all eligible people to come forward and get the vaccine for a #COVIFFreeOdisha,” Patnaik said on Twitter.
Union Health Minister Harhsvardhan said he will take the Covid-jab on Tuesday.
In the nationwide vaccination drive, Covaxin and Covishield are being offered to citizens under phases. Covaxin has been indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
Besides Covaxin, Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII) is the other vaccine being administered in the country.
The Union Health Ministry said citizens can register and book an appointment for vaccination, anytime and anywhere, using the Co-WIN 2.0 portal Cowin.Gov.In or through other IT applications such as Aarogya Setu.
There is also a walk-in provision for the beneficiaries to get themselves registered at the nearby session site to get vaccinated, it said.
The eligible beneficiaries can choose the centre of their choice and book an appointment based on the slots available.
Citizens can register through their mobile number, said the Ministry as it also released a user manual to handhold the citizens to register and schedule an appointment for vaccination.
Amid reports of glitches and some people saying they were finding it difficult to navigate the Co-WIN 2.0 app to register and book an appointment, the Ministry clarified to say the app on PlayStore is meant for use only by administrators. Registration and booking for appointments has to be done through the portal, it said.
