NEW DELHI: The Delhi government will have to temporarily stop the inoculation drive for the 18-44 age group from Monday, as it has almost run out of vaccines for this age group, AAP MLA Atishi said on Friday.
She said that in the last one week, Delhi has already shut 235 of the 368 inoculation centres for this category due to a shortage of vaccines.
"The remaining 133 sites will (also) be shut on Saturday, which means the inoculation drive for this age group will have to be stopped temporarily from Monday," she added.
Vaccination drive is not carried out in Delhi on Sundays.
Atishi said only 42,380 doses were left for the 18-44 category as on Friday morning.
The city has received 8.17 lakh vaccine doses for this age group so far, of which 7.75 lakh had been utilised by Friday morning, she said.
Separately, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia also tweeted that "it is unfortunate that we have to close our centers, for 18+ age group, because of non-availability of vaccine".
Atishi said Delhi has so far received 45.94 lakh vaccine doses for healthcare workers, frontline staff and those aged above 45, of which 43.40 lakh have been administered.
"After Friday evening, the city will have less than one day of Covaxin stock and eight days of Covishield doses left for this category," she said.
The AAP MLA said 77,438 people received vaccine jabs on May 20.
The relatively lesser number of doses administered can be ascribed to the increased dose interval for Covishield vaccine and the city gradually running out stock for the 18-44 age group, Atishi said.
A total of 49.70 lakh doses have been administered in the capital since the inoculation drive began on January 16.
Around 11.23 lakh people have got both the doses.
Healthcare workers, frontline staff and those aged above 45 are being given jabs at 661 centres, whereas beneficiaries in the 18-44 age group are being inoculated at 133 centres.
Separately, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the total count of anti-COVID vaccine doses administered in Delhi crossed the 50 lakh-mark on Friday.
In a tweet, he also lamented that the government had to close down vaccination centres for the 18-44 years age group due to "non-availability of vaccine".
"Delhi has crossed total 50 lakh vaccination doses benchmark today (including 1st and 2nd dose). But it's unfortunate that we have to close our centres, for 18+ age group, because of non-availability of vaccine," he tweeted.
Earlier in the day, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said many inoculation centres for the 18-44 age group are being shut in Delhi from Friday as the city has run out of vaccine for this age group.
Delhi Development Minister Gopal Rai on Friday accused the Centre of "failing" in its duty of providing vaccines to states, and hoped that the system improves at the earliest.
"The vaccines that were supposed to be given to the people of India have been sent abroad and it was done on the direction of the central government."
"I think the Centre is completely failing at this (providing vaccines) and we can only hope that this system improves as soon as possible so that maximum people can be vaccinated and the future dangers can be deferred," said Rai, after inaugurating a 100-bed COVID care facility at the Ambedkar College in Babarpur.
Referring to his government's helplessness on the availability of vaccines, Rai said they want the people to get vaccinated, and have opened vaccination centres.
"But if the Delhi government does not get the vaccines, all they can do is request the central government," he said.
Healthcare workers, frontline staff and those aged above 45 are being given jabs at 623 centres, whereas beneficiaries in the 18-44 age group are being inoculated at 368 centres.
Elaborating about the new community COVID Care Centre in northeast Delhi, that was established with the help of various NGOs and the Delhi government, Rai said the facility was important as the compact area and small houses in the district were making it difficult for people to isolate coronavirus patients at home.
The 100-bed facility, which includes 50 beds with oxygen and 50 without it, is connected with the GTB hospital.
Equipped with oxygen concentrators, provided by the various NGOs, the centre monitored by a dedicated team of doctors, nurses and medical staff has arrangements for food as well.
"In the entire area, the complaints we were receiving was that there are small houses here and so, if someone turns out to be COVID positive, then people are facing troubles even for isolating such patients.
"That is why this centre has been started. We wanted to open this centre a bit early as it was approved already, but this was stalled due to the oxygen crisis," he said.
The helpline number for admitting a COVID patients in the facility is 9717490962, he further informed.
Delhi has recorded 3,009 fresh COVID-19 cases and 252 deaths related to the disease in the past 24 hours, with a positivity rate of less than 4.76 per cent.
The national capital recorded 3,009 fresh COVID-19 cases on Friday, and 252 fatalities from the coronavirus infection, while the positivity rate dipped to 4.76 per cent, according to data shared by the health department here.
According to the latest health bulletin, these new fatalities pushed the death toll from COVID-19 here to 22,831.
The positivity rate on Friday declined to below 5 per cent from 36 per cent registered on April 22, signifying a marked improvement in the situation of the pandemic.
Delhi's Friday tally was almost 3,000 cases, the daily count dipping to below the 4,000-mark for the third consecutive day.
The positivity rate on Thursday had stood at 5.5 per cent.
This is the lowest daily cases count since April 1 when 2,790 cases and nine deaths were recorded.
Medical experts have attributed the lockdown as the main factor behind the dip in the daily cases count amid the second wave of the pandemic.
On Wednesday, Delhi had recorded 3,846 cases and 235 deaths, and 3,231 cases and 233 deaths on Friday.
Meanwhile, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Friday said there were 197 cases of black fungus or mucormycosis in hospitals across the city, till Wednesday night, including non-residents who have come to the city for treatment.
The minister also said many inoculation centres for the 18-44 age group are being shut in Delhi from Friday as the city has run out of vaccine for this category.
Amid rising cases of black fungus,Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday had said that dedicated centres were to be set up for the treatment of black fungus cases at three city government-run hospitals.
On May 15, Kejriwal had said, "The virus is reducing in Delhi slowly and steadily, and I hope it diminishes completely and does not rise again.
However, we are not going to become negligent in anyway", while sounding a tone of caution.
Mucormycosis or black fungus is more common among people whose immunity has got lowered due to COVID-19, diabetes, kidney disease, liver or cardiac disorders, age-related issues, or those on medication for auto-immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.
Delhi has been reeling under a brutal second wave of the pandemic that is sweeping the country, claiming a massive number of lives daily, with the recent oxygen supply shortage issue at various hospitals, adding to the woes.
A total of 63,190 tests, including 45,685 RT-PCR tests and 17,505 rapid antigen tests, were conducted a day ago, according to the latest health bulletin.
The number of cumulative cases on Friday stood at 14,12,959.
Over 13.5 lakh patients have recovered from the virus.
The number of active cases decreased to 35,683 on Friday from 40,214 a day before, the bulletin said.
The number of people under home isolation dipped to 20,673 from 23,851 on Thursday while the number of containment zones dropped to 50,074 from 56,833 a day before, it said.