Delhi vaccinates over 1 crore people

The Capital crossed the 10 million mark in Covid vaccine doses administered so far after over 82,000 jabs were given on Saturday, significantly higher than the daily average of 51,690 over the last seven days, official figures showed.

The vaccination drive in Delhi slowed through July after an initial spurt, reaching over 200,000 doses a day in June-end after the Centre changed the immunisation policy, providing free vaccines for all age groups. Over 100,000 vaccines were administered on six days during the first half of July, with the number of jabs never crossing the mark during the second half.

“Delhi’s vaccination programme has achieved an important milestone. Today we have reached the 1 crore mark. We have administered over 1 crore doses in Delhi since the start of the vaccination drive. Roughly, 2 crore people live in Delhi, of which 1.5 crores are 18+ and thus eligible for getting the vaccine. So about 50% of the population has received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine,” chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said at a digital press briefing.

Over 3.02 million people of 5.18 million (as per census 2011 projections for 2021) above the age of 45 years have received at least one dose of the vaccine. This means almost 42% people over the age of 45 years, who are at the highest risk of developing severe disease and dying of Covid-19, are still completely unimmunised in Delhi. Nationally, 46% over the age of 60 years are yet to receive even one dose of the vaccine. So far, 7.4 million people over the age of 18 years have been given at least one dose. Further, 2.6 million people have received both their doses since the start of the vaccination drive, said Kejriwal. Over 258,000 health care workers or 86% of the estimated 300,000 have received at least one jab of the vaccine in Delhi. And, over 442,000 front line workers or 73.7% of the estimated 600,000 have received the jab in Delhi. The CM said shortage of vaccines continues in the city because of which the government is able to administer only 50,000-70,000 doses every day. He added that if enough doses were provided then Delhi would have finished vaccinating its entire adult population in three months. “We are unable to scale up the programme due to the lack of vaccines. At present we administer 50 to 70 thousand doses each day because there’s a huge lack of vaccines. If we can get sufficient stocks, we possess the infrastructure and setup to administer 3 lakh vaccine doses a day...We are in constant touch with the central government, and I hope that Delhi, along with other states of the country, will soon start receiving adequate stocks,” Kejriwal said.

The use of Covishield for the first dose was halted across all government centres on June 22 because of the limited supply and the drive opening up for those who had received their first shot in May after a gap of 84 days. After a nine-day halt, the vaccine will be in use Sunday onwards; most government vaccination centres remain closed on Sunday. “Covishield will be used for first dose vaccination again tomorrow onwards. However, the supplies are still restricted. Delhi received very few doses of the vaccine yesterday. Hopefully, the supplies will increase during the month,” said a senior official from West district. Several vaccination centres had to be shut through the month for the want of vaccines.