Covid vaccine drive: 89 sites finalised in Delhi, says Jain
Prisons deptt asks 3,600 staff to enrol for vaccine
Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain on Sunday said the city government has finalised 89 sites to roll out the Covid-19 vaccination drive in the national capital from January 16.
“The Centre has finalised around 5,000 sites across the country. As per the directions of the central government, we have finalised 89 hospitals as vaccination sites. The first phase of vaccination will start from January 16,” he said.
Jain said 40 government hospitals and 49 private ones will have a vaccination site each.
“The first batch of vaccines will arrive by Tuesday or Wednesday. In the first phase, health care workers will be vaccinated. Thereafter, frontline workers and those aged above 50 will be given the doses,” Jain told reporters.
Teachers will be included as frontline workers, he said.
There will be one Covid19 vaccination centre each in every hospital. Around 10 health care staff will be deployed at each centre, he said. “We are fully prepared to roll out the vaccination programme. We will administer the vaccine as soon as the doses arrive,” he said.
The minister said the Delhi government has already requested the Centre to provide vaccines free of cost.
Jain said the city has been witnessing less than thousand cases per day for the last 15 days.
“The Covid-19 situation in Delhi has improved a lot and the situation is now under control,” he said.
Delhi has recorded 399 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours as the positivity rate dipped to 0.51 per cent on Sunday in the national capital. With the 399 fresh Covid-19 cases, Delhi’s total tally of has reached over 6.30 lakh. With a recovery rate of 97 per cent, the gap between active cases and recovered cases is continuously increasing in Delhi.
The death toll due to the virus in Delhi currently stands at 10,678. This month, 585 coronavirus cases were reported on January 1, 494 on January 2, 424 on January 3, 384 on January 4, 442 on January 5, 654 on January 6, 486 on January 7, 444 on January 8 and 519 on Saturday.
Gearing up for inoculation drive of Covid-19, the Delhi Prisons Department has asked around 3,600 staff members including security personnel to enrol themselves to receive coronavirus vaccine shots.
According to a senior jails official, around 1,600 jail staff, 1,000 Tamil Nadu Special Police personnel who carry out security duty at Tihar Jail and 1,000 paramilitary personnel are being enrolled.
The date, time and place of vaccination for each person will be intimated to him/her on their mobile number, they said, adding, however, that no inmate will get the shot in the first phase as it has been reserved for frontline workers.
“We appreciate the dedication and hard work done by jail officials and security forces who all were at a high risk for catching
Jain said the city has been witnessing less than 1,000 fresh cases per day for the last 15 days. On December 29 and 30 last year, the city had recorded 703 and 677 fresh coronavirus cases respectively. On December 31, 574 cases were reported.
These new cases came out of the 77,600 tests conducted the previous day,
Covid-19 due to the nature of job. The vaccination will help boost their morale and to work fearlessly in this tough situation,” said Sandeep Goel, the Director General of Prisons.
A total of 292 prisons staff have contracted the infection till Saturday, and 289 of them have recovered, while three are still under treatment. As for the inmates, 115 have tested positive for the virus so far of whom 113 have recovered while two died.
“No inmate has tested positive for Covid-19 since December 10 last year though. The last inmate detected Covid-19 positive was on December 3 and he recovered on December 10,” said a prison official.
Among the prisons, the first case of coronavirus was reported in Rohini Jail on May 13. Two Covid19 positive inmates of Mandoli Jail died on June 15 and July 4. Both were senior citizens.
◗ THE FIRST batch of vaccines will arrive by Tuesday or Wednesday. In the first phase, health care workers will be vaccinated. Thereafter, frontline workers and those aged above 50 will be given the doses, Jain told reporters
including 45,116 RT-PCR tests and 32,484 rapid-antigen tests, according to the Delhi health department.
According to the bulletin, of the total number of 12,115 beds in Covid hospitals, 10,677 are vacant. The drop in the daily death count is following the decline in the infections that are being detected every day.