Jabs drive slows down as vaccine stocks fall short

The sluggish pace of immunisation continued in the Capital, with fewer than 26,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines administered on Monday, when only 418 of the city’s 1,374 vaccination sites were open, with jab stocks still low.

Last week, the city managed to cross the 100,000-mark only on one day, with a low of just over 33,200 doses on a weekday and over 11,300 doses on Sunday.

Officials said the vaccination drive is unlikely to pick up pace on Tuesday.

“We received vaccine doses today [Monday], but supply is still limited. We are not getting the required number of doses, so we will not be able to run all vaccination sites,” said a senior official from east district.

A senior official from West Delhi district also confirmed the shortage.

“We are unable to get as many as we need for some time now. There are days when we have administered more Covaxin first doses,” said a senior official from the district.

The government stopped administering first doses of Covaxin after a shortage of jabs for those turning up for the second shot, after getting their initial shot in May, when the vaccination drive first opened up for everyone over the age of 18 years.

The government resumed it, with a mandate that only 20% of the Covaxin stock be used to administer the first dose, only two weeks ago.

Over 200,000 doses of Covaxin and 72,240 doses of Covishield were available with the Delhi government on Monday morning.

It was unclear whether the government received a fresh batch of vaccine doses on Monday. The city had last received 60,000 doses of Covishield on July 17, according to the government’s vaccination bulletin.

Delhi’s vaccination rates have been erratic since June 21, when the Centre took over control of purchasing and distributing vaccines to states. This was a change from the earlier policy, when states were buying doses for those aged between 18 and 45 at a higher price.

In the three weeks since then, vaccinations peaked on June 26, when the city administered over 207,000 vaccine doses.