Delhi

As Delhi reels under COVID second wave, Kejriwal government again cites vaccine shortage

PTI

NEW DELHI: Delhi has only one day of Covaxin stock left for those aged above 45, healthcare and frontline workers, while Covishield doses for this category can last up to five days, AAP MLA Atishi said on Sunday.

She said 1.18 lakh beneficiaries received the jabs on May 15.

Around 10.50 lakh people have got both the doses since the inoculation drive began on January 16.

Delhi has so far received 44.94 lakh vaccine doses for this age group, of which 41.68 lakh have been administered, Atishi said.

"After Sunday evening, the city will have only one day of Covaxin stock and five days of Covishield doses left. We appeal to the central government to make more vaccines available for this category immediately," she said.

The capital has received 8.17 lakh doses for the 18-44 age group so far, of which 5.25 lakh have been used till Sunday morning.

"Since there are no Covaxin doses left for this category, all such vaccination centres have been shut. We have six days of Covishield stock left," she said.

"We appeal to the Centre to provide more doses of Covaxin and Covishield. If Covaxin cannot be arranged, more doses of Covishield should be given to keep the inoculation drive going at this pace," she said. A total of 44.90 lakh doses have been administered in Delhi so far, according to the latest "vaccination bulletin" released by the government.

The Delhi government had received over 1.73 lakh doses of Covishield on Saturday.

A government panel has recommended increasing the gap between two doses of Covishield COVID-19 vaccine to 12-16 weeks.

Those whose vaccination is due this month will not be administered the vaccine and will only be given the dose according to the new guidelines, a government official said.

Healthcare workers, frontline staff and those aged above 45 are being vaccinated at 470 centres, whereas beneficiaries in the 18-44 age group are being inoculated at 353 centres.

The national capital recorded 6,456 fresh COVID-19 cases and 262 fatalities on Sunday while the positivity rate dropped to 10.40 per cent, the lowest in over a month, according to a Delhi government health bulletin.

With this, the total number of cases in the city has risen to 13,93,867 and the death toll to 21,506, it said.

This is the third consecutive day when Delhi has recorded less than 10,000 cases.

However, the smaller number of new cases was due to relatively fewer tests, 62,059, conducted on Saturday.

Delhi had reported 6,430 cases on Saturday, the lowest since April 7, with medical experts attributing the lockdown as the main factor behind the dip.

Delhi had reported 8,506 cases on Friday, 10,489 on Thursday, 13,287 on Wednesday, 12,481 on Tuesday, 12,651 on Monday and 13,336 on last Sunday.

At 10.40 per cent, Sunday's positivity rate is the lowest since April 11 when it stood at 9.4 per cent, according to government data.

The positivity rate was 11.32 per cent on Saturday, 12.4 per cent on Friday, 14.24 per cent on Thursday, 17 per cent on Wednesday, 17.8 per cent on Tuesday, 19.10 per cent on Monday and 21.67 per cent on last Sunday.

The national capital had recorded its highest positivity rate of 36.2 per cent on April 22.

Delhi had recorded 337 deaths on Saturday, 289 on Friday, 308 on Thursday, 300 on Wednesday, 347 on Tuesday, 319 on Monday, 273 on last Sunday.

The highest number of 448 deaths was reported on May 3.

As many as 62,059 tests, including 45,094 RTPCR/CBNAAT/True Nat tests, were conducted on Saturday, the bulletin stated.

A total of 9,706 people recovered from COVID-19 in a day.

There are 62,783 active cases in Delhi and 39,211 of them are in home isolation, it said.

Over 13.09 lakh people have either recovered, migrated out or have been discharged, it added.

Of the 24,144 hospital beds for coronavirus patients in the city, 7,895 are vacant, the bulletin said.

The COVID-19 situation has been improving in Delhi with the number of cases and positivity rate going down steadily over the past few days.

However, earlier in the day, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal extended the ongoing lockdown in the city till May 24, saying the gains made so far in combating the coronavirus cannot be lost due to relaxations now.

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