Elderly inoculated across states as 2nd phase starts
Vice president Naidu, along with Bihar and Odisha CMs among those vaccinated against Covid-19
NEW DELHI: Several senior citizens on Monday received the coronavirus vaccine as the second phase of the drive, involving those about 60 years of age and those over 45 years with comorbidities, kickstarted across the country.
Besides Prime Minister Narendra Modi and vice president Venkaiah Naidu, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra and his Punjab counterpart V P Singh Badnore were among those who got inoculated.
In Mumbai, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Yadav took the first dose along with his wife and MP daughter at a civic hospital, a senior health official confirmed.
In Kerala, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, health minister K K Shailaja along with their Cabinet colleagues are likely to receive the shot in the coming days. Over 300 private hospitals also cooperated with the government in the mass drive across the southern state, news agency PTI reported.
“I have received the shot. I felt it like any other vaccine while receiving it. Feeling no discomfort,” Indira, a retired college professor who received the jab at the Government General Hospital in Thiruvanthapuram was quoted as saying by PTI.
Many government hospitals across the country, witnessed separate queues of aged people to register directly and receive
the free vaccine.
Sixty-eight-year-old Inder Pal, a resident of Jagatpuri who retired from the education department of the Delhi government, claimed that he was the “first of the senior citizens” who received the vaccine at Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital.
“My son registered my name online. I came here today morning and showed them the registration paper. There was some technical issue with the portal. I received the vaccine around 11.15 am. I have not felt any side effects till now,” he said.
A 97-year old man and an 89-year-old retired doctor became the first to receive the vaccine in Bengaluru and Bhopal, respectively.
In Telangana, state health minister Eatala Rajender took
the vaccine at a government hospital in his Assembly constituency of Huzurabad near Karimnagar.
According to the Union Health Ministry, over one million citizens registered themselves on the Co-WIN portal till 1 pm on Monday. As the process on www.cowin.gov.in opened up at 9 am, several took to social media to flag glitches in the registration system.
However, the ministry later clarified that the Co-WIN app on Play Store is meant for use only by the administrators, and that registration and booking for appointment for Covid-19 vaccination has to be done through the portal www.cowin.gov.in.
“Registration and booking for appointment for #COVID19 vaccination is to be done through
#CoWIN Portal:www.cowin.gov.in. There is no #CoWIN App for beneficiary registration. The App on Play Store is for administrators only,” it posted on Twitter.
At least six states continued to report an increased number of daily new cases and have contributed 87.25 per cent of the fresh cases in the country, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed. The ministry said Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, had shown a surge in new cases in the last 24 hours.