Vaccination against COVID-19 will be offered on all days of April at all public and private vaccination centres, including gazetted holidays, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday, 1 April.
"The Centre has written to all states and UTs today and asked to make necessary arrangements to provide COVID vaccination in these CVCs (COVID Vaccination Centres) on all days of the month including gazetted holidays during April 2021," the government statement said.
‘Rapid Increase in Pace and Coverage of COVID Vaccination’
"This step has been taken after detailed deliberations with the states/UTs on 31 March 2021 to optimally utilise all COVID Vaccination Centres across the public and private sectors to ensure rapid increase in the pace and coverage of COVID vaccination," it added.
The decision comes on a day when the third phase of vaccination began in India on Thursday, with all those above 45 years of age eligible to get the jabs.
The number of coronavirus cases in India have been rapidly rising over the last few weeks, with the state of Maharashtra leading the surge. On Thursday, India reported 72,330 new coronavirus cases, in what is the biggest one-day rise in cases since 11 October, taking the tally in the country to 1,22,21,665. The death toll increased by 459 to 1,62,927.
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