Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday received the second dose of Covid vaccine today at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), 37 days after he took his first vaccine jab, sending a message to the people that "vaccination is among the few ways we have, to defeat the virus".
PM Modi took his first covid vaccine shot on March 1 when the second phase of nationwide vaccination against coronavirus began.
Advising the citizens through a Twitter message, the PM wrote: "If you are eligible for the vaccine, get your shot soon. Register on CoWin.gov.in."
"Got my second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine at AIIMS today (Thursday). Vaccination is among the few ways we have, to defeat the virus," Modi tweeted.
Modi also posted a photo with nurses who gave him the shot. In the pic, Modi was seen wearing a face mask with a stole over his shoulders.
The Prime Minister has taken home-grown Covaxin, developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), which has been linked to vaccine hesitancy because of its clinical trials status.
The two nurses who administered the Covid-19 vaccine to the Prime Minister on Thursday are P. Niveda from Puducherry, who had given the first shot of Covid to Modi on March 1 and Nisha Sharma from Punjab.
PM Modi took his second dose hours ahead of his meeting with Chief Ministers scheduled later this evening where he is expected to review the ongoing vaccination drive and the recent startling increase in coronavirus cases in the country.
Amid the "second wave" of Covid-19 across the country, the Centre allowed administering vaccine shots at workplaces with around 100 eligible beneficiaries from April 11. Currently, people at the age of 45 and above are eligible for vaccination.
The Union Health Ministry recently said India has surpassed the US to become the fastest Covid-19 vaccinating country in the world with an average daily rate of 30,93,861 vaccine doses. So far, over 9.01 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in India, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.