Vaccine doses near end, Delhi might shut centres tomorrow

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said on Tuesday that with just over 168,000 doses of Covid vaccine left in stock, vaccination centres will have to be shut from Wednesday.

“We have the capability to administer 300,000-400,000 doses a day. But there is a shortage of vaccines. We have received a small stock of 150,000 Covishield doses on Monday night; we have around 168,000 doses which will not last beyond Tuesday or half of Wednesday. We have to close vaccination centres because of lack of vaccines,” he said.

The vaccination drive had picked up pace after the policy change June 21 onwards where 75% of the vaccines manufactured in the country was being purchased by the Centre and distributed to states as opposed to states buying the doses at a differential, higher pricing for those between the ages of 18 and 45 years.

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Taking a dig at neighbouring Haryana government, who the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has been blaming for the current water crisis in the city, Jain said, ““We can’t function like Haryana and slowly vaccinate people to hoard on stocks. We are vaccinating the maximum number of people as and when we are receiving the vaccines.”

Delhi had administered about 125,000 doses till Tuesday evening, according to CoWIN dashboard. Talking about the low number of Covid-19 cases – 45 cases reported on Monday, the lowest in the last fifteen months – the minister said people must continue to take precautions.

“Covid-19 cases have come down sharply in Delhi but I still urge people to take complete precautions and wear masks at all times. We saw a similar situation back in January-February...These are not the times to assume that cases have gone down so they won’t spike again,” he said.