Hindustan Times (Noida)

Daily vaccinatio­n turnout hits high in Capital, 91%+ get shots

- Sweta Goswami sweta.goswami@htlive.com

NEW DELHI: Over 91% scheduled beneficiar­ies of the Covid-19 vaccine were inoculated in one day for the first time in Delhi on Monday, as 41 hospitals in the Capital either completed their daily target or exceeded it.

At Delhi’s 81 vaccinatio­n centres, 7,408 health care workers of the targeted 8,100 received a jab of either the Covaxin or Covishield vaccines.

According to administra­tion data, 41 hospitals, including private and government facilities, either vaccinated 100% of their targeted beneficiar­ies, or exceeded that number on Monday.

Monday was the first time since the launch of the campaign on January 16 when six of Delhi’s 11 districts recorded turnouts over 90%, four recorded over 80%, while one district hit 71% of its target.

Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar hospital in Rohini and Mata Chanan Devi hospital in west Delhi recorded the highest turnouts, with 140 health care workers receiving vaccine shots. Government hospitals like Rajiv Gandhi Super specialty hospital in Tahirpur, Lok Nayak Hospital, GB Pant, ILBS and Dr Hegdewar Arogya Sansthan turnouts of 100% or more.

Officials said the 91.45% turnemploy­ees’

out, a jump of 6.3 percentage points compared to Saturday, was due to minor measures introduced by the administra­tion over the course of the drive.

These include out-of-turn vaccine shots for not only those beneficiar­ies who are allotted slots on future dates, but also those who missed their shots. Further, centres were informally allowed to exceed the cap of 100 shots per day on ensuring

full compliance of Covid-19 norms, and allowing beneficiar­ies take their shots in any centre of their choice, instead of the vaccinatio­n point they were registered for.

For the second straight day, Shahdara managed to inoculate 100% of its targeted beneficiar­ies for the day. The district vaccinated 604 (101%) people instead of 600, a trend first seen in northeast district on Saturday.

Shahdara was on Monday followed by northeast district, which vaccinated 197 health care workers against the target of 200. North district vaccinated 285 (71%) of 400 beneficiar­ies – the lowest of all districts on Monday.

In Delhi, Covid-19 vaccinatio­n happens four days a week Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Cumulative vaccinatio­n data since January 16 shows that the Capital has so far inoculated 13.8% of the 240,000 health care workers identified and registered with the government for the phase of the programme.

“Delhi has had six days of Covid-19 vaccinatio­n till now and after the first two to three days of low turnout, things have started looking up since Thursday. We have inoculated 33,170 (65%) healthcare workers so far in the Capital, out of the target of 50,678,” said a senior health official.

Overall, southeast district has been closest to its total target so far, vaccinatin­g 75% (3,773) of a total of 5,064 registered health care workers. North Delhi had the fewest vaccinatio­ns (1,294) of all districts, against its overall target of 2,465 till Monday.

Only 14 AEFI (adverse effects following immunisati­on) cases were reported on Monday.

So far, 156 adverse events have been reported in Delhi, most of which were categorise­d as “mild”, meaning that the beneficiar­y reported nausea, headache or mild rash at the injection site, and the person was allowed to leave the centre after a 30-minute observatio­n period.

Since the launch of the campaign, the south district has seen the highest number of AEFI cases (28), while northeast reported the lowest with just 4 cases.

 ?? AMAL KS/HT ?? Health workers in an observatio­n room after getting the vaccine at Rajiv Gandhi hospital.
AMAL KS/HT Health workers in an observatio­n room after getting the vaccine at Rajiv Gandhi hospital.

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