Around 3% in Delhi have got at least 1 vaccine dose: Data
NEW DELHI: Just over 3% of Delhi’s population has received at least a single dose of the coronavirus vaccine so far, government records show, with experts calling for the government to expedite the vaccination programme in the Capital amid a steady spike in the number of new Covid-19 cases.
As on Sunday evening, 638,438 people have received at least one shot of a Covid-19 vaccine in the city, marginally more than 3% of Delhi’s nearly 20 million population.
Over 178,000 persons over the age of 60 have received at least one shot of the vaccine since the drive opened for them on March 1, state government data showed. This accounts for over 8.5% of the 2.1 million people in this category living in Delhi as per estimates based on electoral rolls.
Over 28,000 persons above the age of 45 with 20 specified co-morbidities have also received the shot so far in the city.
With the Centre releasing the list of eligible illness — such as severe heart condition, cancers, and complicates diabetes and hypertension — soon before the drive opened up for this category, the city does not have estimates on the number of such persons living in Delhi.
Over 70% of registered health care and frontline workers, who started getting the shots in mid-January and February beginning respectively, have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Additionally, 114,564 persons have receiving both doses of the vaccines, 28 days apart, thus completing their immunisation from the infection. Both vaccines approved for use in India — Covaxin and Covishield — need two doses given four to six weeks apart.
Nearly three crore vaccine doses have been administered across the country till Saturday evening, according to Union health ministry data, around 2.5% of the total population of the country.
“We are already conducting vaccinations six days a week. We have also fixed 50,000 vaccine slots per day, and the number will keep increasing,” said Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain.
With the number of cases of the viral infections on the rise, district officials have been asked to focus on increasing the pace of immunisation along with contact tracing and testing.
“In addition to what we were doing in March and April last year — tracing contacts and testing people at risk of getting the infection — we have an effective vaccine this time around. We are focussing on encouraging more and more people to come and get immunised. We have been in touch with several resident welfare organisations (RWAs) in the city to increase awareness about the vaccines and the vaccination drive and motivate people to get the shot,” said one senior district official, on the condition of anonymity.
Another official said, “We are also using our network of ASHA and Anganwadi workers to find beneficiaries over the age of 60 or those with comorbidities and encourage them to go to their nearest vaccination centre. We have allowed walkins after 3pm to ensure that more people turn up, just like it happened initially with the drive for health care workers.” The official said the district officials were also helping in registering those who do not know how to register on CoWIN portal to increase the numbers.
On Sunday, Delhi recorded 407 cases of Covid-19, seeing over 400 cases for four days in a row. With just over 68,000 tests having been conducted, the positivity rate – proportion of samples that return positive among total tested – stood at 0.60% on Sunday.
The seven-day average positivity rate has increased to 0.55% from 0.42% last week.
This, experts say, is an indication of the increasing spread of the infection in the city.
“When there is a fire somewhere, should we throw all the water we have at it or distribute it equally. What are the vaccines for? The government should vaccinate everyone over the age of 18 in the six states that have started seeing an increase in the number of cases. All the vaccines from other states should be diverted; the others can wait for it,” said Dr T Jacob John, former head of the department of virology at Christian Medical College, Vellore.