1.30 lakh people in 18-44 age group vaccinated: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal
NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said around 1.30 lakh people in the 18-44 age group have been vaccinated against coronavirus since the inoculation of this category started on May 3. He also said the entire population of the capital can be vaccinated in three months, but only if adequate doses are available.
“In the last three days, around 1.3 lakh people (in the 18-44 age group) have been vaccinated. I hope more will be vaccinated in the coming days. We want to increase the scale of vaccination, but there is a problem ‘ vaccine is in short supply,” he said during a virtual press conference.
The chief minister said more than 35 lakh people have been vaccinated in Delhi so far. Of this, 28 lakh have taken the first dose, and over 7.5 lakh have taken both the doses, he said.
“As I had promised earlier, we can vaccinate the entire (population of) Delhi within three months if there’s adequate supply. We will open up more centres if we get more doses in a timely manner,” he said.
The chief minister requested all those aged above 18 to take the jabs compulsorily. “At the end of the day, one has to get vaccinated. Vaccination is the only solution to this problem,” he said.
Meanwhile, the national capital recorded 335 Covid-19 deaths in a day and 19,133 new cases even as the positivity rate dropped below 25 per cent for the first time since April 18, according to the bulletin issued by the Delhi health department on Thursday. This is the third time in the last four days that the number of new cases remained below 20,000.
At 24.29 per cent, the case positivity rate is its lowest since April 16, when it was 19.7 per cent, according to government data. It was 24.6 percent on April 17. On April 22, a positivity rate of 36.2 percent, the highest so far, was recorded.
The city had witnessed 311 deaths on Wednesday, 338 on Tuesday, 448 on Monday, the highest so far; 407 on Sunday, 412 on Saturday, 375 on Friday, 395 on last Thursday and 368 on Wednesday last week.
It has so far recorded 12,73,035 cases, of which over 11.64 lakh have recovered. The death toll due to the viral disease stands at 18,398.
PIL seeks vaccination centres at RWAs, NGOs
A PIL urged the Delhi High Court on Thursday to direct the Centre and Delhi government for setting up vaccination centres in the offices of Residential Welfare Associations (RWAs), cooperative societies, NGOs to reduce people’s exposure to COVID when they go to get vaccinated.
A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh asked the authorities concerned to treat the plea as a representation and take a decision in accordance with the law, rules, regulations and policy.