NEW DELHI: The vaccination pace in the city on Tuesday registered a slight uptick after receiving doses from Haryana. Though in limited numbers, the doses arrived have marginally uplifted the inoculation figures at government vaccination sites.
According to official data, the sites doing inoculation drives registered a rise. Nearly 76 immunisation centres conducted the vaccination wherein 34 government vaccination centres participated, which is a modest increase from the previous week.
The lack of vaccine doses had left public vaccination centres high and dry. Only 10 sites conducted the drive in the previous week. The shortage of vaccine doses across major government centres have made difficult for people to take jabs at a time when emphasis is being laid on bridging the lag in second shots and particularly booster shots to prevent a potential outbreak in the wake of rising cases in China, USA and a few other
However, the health department received a fresh stock of Covaxin vaccine from Haryana earlier this week which was distributed to government-run vaccination centres, which contributed to increased immunisation sites. Officials said that around 1,000 vials (20,000) of Covaxin were received from the neighboring state.
Each vial of Covaxin contains 20 doses. The Covishield vaccine stock from the Centre is yet to arrive, officials said. According to Delhi government’s data, only 24 per cent of the city’s population had taken booster shots. Figures showed that the maximum uptake of booster shots was among health care and front-line workers (62 per cent), followed by people aged over 60 (48 per cent).
The cohort of 18-59 years old is the least covered by the third dose of Covid-19 vaccines at 19 per cent. The officials said that the Delhi government has written a letter to the Central government demanding early release of the vaccine’s fresh supply.