Half of those in 45+ group fully vaccinated in Delhi

The city has a 47% second dose coverage against the national average of around 30% at present. Each individual has to get two doses.

Delhi, which was facing an acute shortage of vaccines in July and August, has managed to give at least one shot of the vaccine to 1.28 crore people and 70 lakh people have got both doses. The estimated population of those eligible for the vaccine (people over 18 years) is 1.49 crore.

Data shows that the coverage of the second dose peaked in the week between September 25 and October 1. A total of 11.26 lakh doses were administered in this duration – 6.39 lakh were second doses.

Over 1.28 crore doses have been administered in the 18-44. There are close to 92 lakh people in Delhi in this category.

There are 14 lakh people in the 60+ age group, government estimates say, and over 24 lakh doses have been administered to them.

Owing to the demography, the bulk of vaccines have been administered to people in the 18-44 age group. The numbers, however, have now started decreasing. In mid-September, around 9.5 lakh doses were administered to the group in a week. This was also the peak. Since then, the numbers have been declining slowly and this week, only 3.18 lakh doses have been administered.

Overall weekly vaccination figures have also come down from 11.59 lakh in mid-September to 3.9 lakh over the past week.

According to officials working in different districts of the city, people of all age groups seem to have overcome the hesitancy in getting vaccinated.

“While there was some hesitancy, especially in those above the age of 60 initially, several outreach programmes have helped address that to an extent. We are hopeful that all those eligible will have got at least one shot till December. As per our calculations, only around 30 lakh people are yet to get a single shot. But we also have to remember that a lot of people from neighbouring states like Uttar Pradesh and Haryana came to Delhi to get vaccinated. That will also have to be kept in mind while collating data,” said a senior Delhi government official.

In districts bordering other states, such as Northwest Delhi, which borders Haryana, several people got vaccinated in centres outside the city. “While numbers say that not all of our population above 60 is vaccinated, when we go for outreach programmes, we find that many people took the jab in Haryana as the centre was closer to them,” said a senior district official.