Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal took his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in AIIMS today. After taking the dose, the 56-year-old union minister appealed that everyone who is eligible should take the vaccine.
Goyal, who is also minister of railways; and consumer affairs, food and public distribution, took to the microblogging site to share a picture of vaccine jab.
He tweeted, “Together, let us build a safe and healthy nation and make India COVID-19 free.”
Meanwhile, the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 6.43 crore as of March 31, 2021.
India started COVID-19 vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 with two vaccines - Covishield and Covaxin. In the first phase, healthcare workers were administered the vaccine. The vaccination of the Frontline Workers (FLWs) started on February 2.
On Tuesday, the union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan had announced that from April 1 all people above 45 years will be eligible for vaccination. Thus, Goyal became eligible for the dose.
His ministry was recently praised by FMCG companies for including food processing under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. Yesterday, the cabinet approved a PLI scheme for the food processing sector, entailing an outlay of Rs 10,900 crore.
Commenting about this scheme, the minister had said the scheme for food processing is a part of the government’s effort to strengthen the farm sector. His ministry had developed the PLI scheme which is extended to more than 13 sectors and the government has cleared Rs 2 lakh crore of the scheme.