All adults in Delhi have taken at least one Covid vaccine jab

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said all of the Capital’s 14.83 million eligible adults have been inoculated with at least the first dose

All eligible residents of the national capital have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, a significant achievement for Delhi that comes amid concerns of the Omicron variant of the Sars-CoV-2, and a landmark that experts said may help the city soften the effects of any future Covid-19 surge.

Over 10.5 million in Delhi have been completely vaccinated. (Representational image )

In a tweet on Friday, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said all of the Capital’s 14.83 million eligible adults have been inoculated with at least the first dose.

The chief minister hailed the efforts of the city’s health care and front line workers, who played a key role in achieving this target.

“Delhi completes first dose to 100% eligible people - 148.33 lakh. Salute to Doctors, ANMs, Teachers, ASHAs, CDVs and all other Frontline workers. Congratulations to DMs, CDMOs, DIOs and all district functionaries,” Kejriwal tweeted on Friday.

Over 10.5 million in Delhi have been completely vaccinated.

Delhi has a population of roughly 20 million people, of whom about five million are children, and are still beyond the net of Covid-19 vaccinations. The adult population figures are according to a November estimate of voters in Delhi by the Election Commission.

To be sure, Delhi is not the first state or Union territory to cover all its adults with the first dose of a vaccine. Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Goa have also administered first doses to all of their adults, among states in the country. Among UTs, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Jammu & Kashmir and Chandigarh have earlier hit this milestone.

Delhi on Friday added 180 cases of Covid-19, the largest single-day spike since June 16, when the city logged 212 infections, showed data from the state government’s daily health bulletin. In the past seven days, the city added an average of 116 cases each day.

The fresh infections on Friday came at a test positivity rate of 0.29%, the highest since June 14.

The rate of vaccinations in Delhi has picked up significantly since news of the highly transmissible Omicron variant emerged globally on November 25.

In the seven days ending November 25, Delhi administered an average of just over 33,420 first vaccine doses. This number went up to nearly 36,800 in the week ending December 2, then shot up to 50,446 seven days later.

Roughly two weeks since then, this number has dipped, but likely because the number of unvaccinated residents in the city began to shrink.

To be sure, a proportion of these vaccines will have been administered to residents of other cities, especially those in the National Capital Region.

The city’s peak of single-day first doses came on June 26, when it administered 172,755 shots, showed data from the CoWin dashboard.

So far, over 1.44 million people in the city have been infected with Covid-19, of whom 25,103 have succumbed to the illness, according to state government data.

A district immunisation officer said the pace of vaccinations was slow initially because people were concerned about potential side effects, but picked up as these concerns were allayed. “I would like to appeal to those whose second dose is pending to come forward and get it on time,” said the officer.

Experts said the complete vaccine coverage among the city’s adults will help check the severity of any future Covid-19 wave, if any.

“Vaccines don’t stop any wave. Singapore would not have witnessed such a massive wave of cases despite 100% vaccination. But vaccines check the severity of infections and deaths due to it. Now that Delhi has inoculated 100% population with first dose of Covid vaccine, it can reduce the impact of the next wave and there will be fewer deaths,” said Dr Sanjay Rai, professor, community medicine department at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).