At current pace, Delhi will vaccinate its adults by July or August: Govt

The matter was discussed in a DDMA meeting chaired by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Friday.

At the current pace of the ongoing Covid-19 vaccination drive, Delhi will be able to fully inoculate its entire adult population of 15 million only by July or August next year, the state health department has informed the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA).

Till Friday, Delhi administered at least 10.47 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines. (HT Photo)

The matter was discussed in a DDMA meeting chaired by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Friday, during which the health department said that in order to administer both doses of vaccines to all the adults of the city by December this year, it will need 20 million more doses of Covid-19 vaccines in batches of at least about 4.5 million jabs a month.

“But, it is unlikely that the doses will come at this pace every month. In August, Delhi was allocated 1,679,660 doses. At this pace, complete vaccination of the national capital’s entire adult population will be over only by July or August, 2022,” said a senior official, who attended the meeting, on condition of anonymity.

“If we have to expedite the vaccination drive, we also have to focus on completing the first dose for every adult, which means around six million doses will ideally be needed for the purpose by next month. But, that seems unlikely, because the Centre’s allocation to states are different depending on the case load,” said the official.

A shortage of supplies has forced the Delhi government to regulate the use of doses in all its vaccination centres. The administration has reserved 80% slots for those who have their second dose of Covishield vaccine due, and the remaining 20% are for for first doses. For Covaxin, 60% of the slots are reserved for the second dose, while 40% are for the first. This is because the gap between two doses of Covaxin is shorter (one month) compared to the 12-16-week gap for Covishield.

Documents seen by HT showed that so far, Delhi has received 9,376,300 doses of Covid-19 vaccines of which 7,082,270 were Covishield and 2,294,030 were Covaxin. As on Friday, the state government had 745,010 doses of Covid-19 vaccines in stock.

Till Friday, Delhi administered at least 10.47 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines. Of these 7.6 million are first doses and 2.8 million are second doses.

At least 3.84 million of Delhi’s population aged between 18 and 45 have got their first doses, the highest among the inoculation age groups.

But when it comes to those who are fully vaccinated with both the doses, the highest numbers (1.88 million) are among those aged 45 and above. Only 400,000 people aged between 18 and 45 have been fully vaccinated so far.

“This is also because the vaccination for those aged 18 and above started much later, in May, whereas jabs for the 45+ group started in April. If doses are given in enough quantities from time to time then Delhi is capable of administering 300,000 doses every day,” said a health official.

Delhi government officials said they are simultaneously focusing on enforcing Covid-19 appropriate behaviour in public places, and added that the city’s district administrations have put in place 156 enforcement teams with 129 vehicles.

So far in August, teams under the 11 district magistrates in Delhi have issued 25,102 challans, registered 735 FIRs and imposed fines worth ₹4,57,05,300. When compared month-wise since May, the highest prosecutions were made in July, when 211,267 challans were issued, 6,424 FIRs registered and fines worth ₹36.21 crore imposed.

The Delhi Police also carries out enforcement drives and in August so far, the force has issued 1,767 challans, arrested 350 people and registered 389 FIRs.