10mn vaccine doses given in Delhi so far

NEW DELHI: The Capital crossed the 10 million mark in Covid vaccine doses administered so far after over 82,000 jabs were given on Saturday, significantly higher than the daily average of 51,690 over the last seven days, official figures showed.

The vaccination drive in Delhi slowed through July after an initial spurt, reaching over 200,000 doses a day in June-end after the Centre changed the immunisation policy, providing free vaccines for all age groups. Over 100,000 vaccines were administered on six days during the first half of July, with the number of jabs never crossing the mark during the second half.

“Delhi’s vaccination programme has achieved an imporPramod tant milestone. Today we have reached the 1 crore mark. We have administered over 1 crore doses in Delhi since the start of the vaccination drive. Roughly, 2 crore people live in Delhi, of which 1.5 crores are 18+ and thus eligible for getting the vaccine. So about 50% of the population has received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine,” chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said at a digital press briefing.

Over 3.02 million people of 5.18 million (as per census 2011 projections for 2021) above the age of 45 years have received at least one dose of the vaccine. This means almost 42% people over the age of 45 years, who are at the highest risk of developing severe disease and dying of Covid-19, are still completely unimmunised in Delhi. Nationally, 46% over the age of 60 years are yet to receive even one dose of the vaccine.