New Delhi: The Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday (March 3, 2021) announced that the people can now take the COVID-19 vaccine shot round the clock as per their convenience.


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Harsh Vardhan took to his official Twitter account to announce the news and said, "The government has ended the time constraint to increase the speed of vaccination. Citizens of the country can now get vaccinated 24x7 at their convenience."


Vardhan who took the vaccine jab on Tuesday added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi understands the health of citizens of the country as well as the value of their time. 


Earlier on Tuesday, Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary chaired a high-level review meeting with Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and Secretaries (H&FW) of States and UTs. They reviewed the status and pace of the next phase of the country-wide COVID vaccination program which commenced from March 1. 


They were urged to utilise 100% capacities of all private hospitals functioning as the COVID Vaccination Centres (CVCs). They were also directed to ensure adequate allocation of coronavirus vaccines to all hospitals (government and private) for the entire duration for which sessions has been planned, to enable them to function as CVCs in a smooth and obstruction-free manner. 

It was also reiterated that there is no shortage of COVID vaccines, hence adequate vaccine doses should be allocated to the CVCs. 


The new phase of COVID-19 vaccination commenced from Monday for those who are over 60 years of age and for people aged 45 and above with specified co-morbid conditions. However, the nation-wide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 with healthcare workers being inoculated against the virus, whereas, the vaccination of the frontline workers began on February 2. 

The 2nd dose of COVID-19 vaccination started on February 13 for those beneficiaries who have completed 28 days after receipt of the 1st dose.


According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's provisional report, till 7 am on Monday, more than 1.56 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered through 3,12,188 sessions. 


Meanwhile, India reported 14,989 new coronavirus confirmed cases in the last 24 hours, which took the country's total active caseload to 1,70,126.