Parliament begins COVID-19 vaccination drive for both the houses

With the second leg of the Budget Session underway, Parliament on Tuesday started Covid-19 vaccination drive for all members of both the Houses.

Members of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha will be administered the Covid vaccines as India expanded the world's largest inoculation drive and entered in a fresh phase covering all aged over 60 years and those above 45 years suffering from comorbidities.

The vaccination drive started inside the Parliament premises from 10 a.m. and will continue till the Budget session concludes. The drive will be conducted between 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day except Saturday and Sunday.

All the parliamentarians have been informed about the drive and requested to visit the Covid-19 Centre near the reception office of Parliament's Annexe for their inoculation.

Aimed to ensure the health of all parliamentarians, the Parliament adopted the move following other departments under the Centre beginning the drive to inoculate their employees meeting the criteria decided by the government in the ongoing phase of the vaccination.

President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and various Union Cabinet Ministers, including Amit Shah, Harsh Vardhan, Narendra Singh Tomar have also received shots so far as the programme got underway in other places across the country with hopes that it would help control the uptick in cases in several states.

India expanded its Covid-19 vaccine coverage on March 1 with Prime Minister Narendra Modi setting the pace by being the first person to take a jab.

Thousands queued up at government and private medical facilities across the country as the country further opened its vaccination programme that started on January 16 for healthcare and sanitary workers.

Indigenously developed Covaxin vaccine from Bharat Biotech and Covishield from the Oxford-AstraZeneca are being administered to people in India since the inoculation drive begins here.


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