Delhi gets 2.74 lakh doses; vaccinations 4 times a week

“I took stock of the situation. All preparations have been made and all the teams are ready for the drive. We have received around 2.74 lakh vaccine doses from the Centre until now. As you know, every person will receive two doses, and the government gives 10 per cent extra to meet any contingency. The doses received are sufficient to cover approximately 1.2 lakh healthcare workers. Around 2.4 lakh healthcare workers have registered across Delhi,” he said.

Of the 81 health facilities, 40 are government-run and the rest private. “Seventy-five sites are for administering Covishield vaccine and six for Covaxin, on the vaccination rollout day,” a senior official said. Covaxin will be administered at AIIMS, Safdarjung Hospital, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Kalawati Saran Children Hospital and ESI Hospitals at Basai Darapur and Rohini.

“The vaccine will be administered on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, while the rest of the days have been spared for routine vaccination process,” Kejriwal said.

“People are in distress due to corona for the last one year, and I hope and pray to God that the people of Delhi, the country, and the world will be able to get relief after the vaccine comes,” added the chief minister.

The government also plans to gradually scale up the number of vaccination sites to 1,080. But in the first round of augmentation, the number of centres will rise from 81 to 175, the CM said, adding that at each site, 100 persons will be inoculated on an average.

The northwest and west districts will have 11 vaccination centres each — among the highest — followed by the southeast district. The northeast district will have two centres.

So far, the government has identified around 600 sites, the list of which has been shared with the Centre.

The government has also directed the district magistrates to gradually draw up 1,100 teams — from 135 teams in Southwest district to 71 in Northeast district — to carry out the vaccination drive.

According to health officials, the city has so far received around 2.64 lakh doses of Serum Institute of India’s Covishield vaccine, while the remaining doses are Covaxin from Bharat Biotech.

4 deaths today — Lowest since April 17

The capital recorded four Covid-19 deaths Friday, the lowest since April 17, according to Health Minister Satyendar Jain. The health bulletin also put Thursday’s positivity rate at 0.48%, which the government said was an “all time low”.

The 340 fresh cases reported on Thursday were based on 71,325 tests, of which 39,226 were carried out through the RT-PCR mode. “Wear mask and follow social distancing to keep yourself and your family safe,” Jain tweeted.

A status check of Covid-19 dedicated hospitals shows that 10,754 beds out of 11,953 are vacant. There are 1,311 Covid patients under home isolation as of now. ens