New Delhi: The vaccination drive in India was started on January 16 with healthcare workers being vaccinated against the COVID-19. The second phase of the inoculation where frontline workers received the vaccine started on February 2. The third phase of vaccination started on March 1 for those who are over 60 years of age and for people aged 45 and above with co-morbid conditions.

Now in a move to ramp up the speed of the COVID vaccination drive, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday declared that citizens will now be able to take vaccine 24*7 as per their convenience.

Harsh Vardhan 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.”

The Central Minister stressed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi understands the health of people of the country as well as the value of their time. The announcement comes a day after Centre directed all the states and union territories to use all private hospitals - empanelled under government insurance schemes in full capacity to achieve optimum number of vaccinations.

The Minister and his wife took the jab of vaccine at Delhi Heart and Lung Institute on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a total of over 1,56,20,749 vaccine doses have been given till now.