(MENAFN- IANS) By Ashish Srivastava
New Delhi, March 1 (IANS) Minister of external affairs, S Jaishankar took his first jab of the Covid vaccine at AIIMS here on Monday in the ongoing phase 3 of the Covid immunization programme in the country.
Speaking to IANS, the minister said that he is feeling perfectly normal.
"I'm feeling perfectly fine and confident," he told IANS.
The vaccine was administered to him under observation of the Institute's director, Dr Randeep Guleria. After taking the shot, Jaishankar was seen inquiring about the duration his body will take to develop immunity.
"This is your primer dose and you would be administered the booster dose after a prescribed gap," Guleria explained to the minister.
He also said that the longer you wait for the booster dose, the better would be the body's immune response.
To this, Jaishankar asked Guleria if he should get inoculated on the 29th day from now or he should wait longer? "What do you think?" he questioned.
"It's up to you. The second dose can wait for more than 28 days as well," Guleria answered.
Hours before Jaishankar, Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, also took the shot at the institute.
Day 1 of the third phase of the vaccination took off with Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking the vaccine jab at AIIMS around 6.30 a.m.
Modi decided to get the jab early in the morning to avoid inconvenience to the public that may have occurred due to his security protocols, officials said.
Vaccination will be provided free of charge to people above 60 and those above 45 with co-morbidities at the government health facilities and will be on a payment basis in the private health facilities. All private hospitals can charge Rs 150 for the vaccine and Rs 100 as service charge as fixed by the central government.
Around 10,000 hospitals empanelled under Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY and 687 hospitals under CGHS can be used by the states as Covid Vaccination Centres.
--IANS
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