Vaccination in city hits new high with 12k jabs
NEW DELHI: For the first time in the national capital, over 12,000 people were vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in a single day on Tuesday. A total of 12,717 health-care and front-line workers received the shot across 183 vaccination sites in Delhi.
This is an increase of 2,977 beneficiaries over Monday’s 9,740 -- the highest number of people to be inoculated in a single day so far.
The uptick in numbers was largely owing to a special drive conducted to vaccinate police personnel -- some of the vaccination sites were exclusively kept aside to cater to them. At one such site at Lok Nayak Hospital, 57 of the 100 people who had been called in, received the shot. “Today, we started vaccinating front-line workers at our hospital. Of the 100 people who were called in, 57 turned up. Currently, we do not allow front-line workers to walk in out of turn,” said one of the senior doctors at the hospital.
Health-care workers can walk in at any vaccination site and get the shot even if their names are not on that day’s list of beneficiaries. That benefit hasn’t been allowed to front-line workers yet as the Delhi government started administering the shot to front-line workers only last week.
However, Tuesday’s vaccine coverage rate – proportion of people who received the shot among those targeted -- was just 69.1%, which, in comparison to previous vaccination days, is not all that remarkable. There were several days in the past when the city had seen a coverage rate of over 90%.
Two districts – north and north-east – saw over 100% coverage, with north-east registering 150%. “That was because of more front-line workers getting the shot. Over the past two days, nearly 80% of those who received the vaccine at out sites were front-line workers. We are coordinating with the heads of departments and they are in turn motivating and following up with their employees. This has resulted in the higher numbers,” said a senior official from the district.
Others, however, say there is a need to get front-line workers motivated.
“The hesitancy among health-care workers has been addressed to some level. Initially, there were fears of adverse reactions but as time went by, more and more people came forward to get the shot. But, now we have hit a wall with the front-line workers-- many are unwilling to get the shot. We will be following a similar strategy to motivate them as well,” said another district official, also on condition of anonymity.