Soon, mohalla clinics will offer vaccination to widen coverage, says Delhi deputy CM Sisodia

To improve accessibility to the Covid-19 vaccine and widen its coverage, the Delhi government will start administering vaccines from mohalla clinics in the coming days, said deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the health portfolio, adding that vaccination centres will be set up at all 520 mohalla clinics within the month

To improve accessibility to the Covid-19 vaccine and widen its coverage, the Delhi government will start administering vaccines from mohalla clinics in the coming days, said deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the health portfolio, adding that vaccination centres will be set up at all 520 mohalla clinics within the month.

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“This is a major step towards further increasing the vaccination coverage in the capital, after a door-to-door campaign. Delhi has adopted a multipronged strategy to achieve optimal vaccination coverage of all eligible beneficiaries,” Sisodia said on Monday.

He further said, “Currently, vaccination is being provided on “mission mode”, but a cohort of the population is due their second dose and a significantly higher cohort is due their precautionary dose. The addition of vaccination centres at mohalla clinics will help us achieve the higher vaccination target soon.”

Data from the government’s Co-WIN dashboard shows that Delhi has administered 34,957,519 Covid vaccine doses so far. Of these, 18,118,314 are first doses, 15,268,010 are second doses and 1,571,195 are the third or precautionary doses.

Health department officials said while the coverage for the first and second doses has been good, the pace of booster dose administration is quite slow. This, however, could also be because of the high infection and reinfection rate since Omicron became the dominant variant of Covid in the Delhi since this January, they said.

Sisodia said in order to prepare mohalla clinics for vaccinations, designated staff will be provided training on ‘Covid vaccination operational guidelines’ by resource personnel.

“The responsibility of Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinics will be to provide adequate space for the vaccination site, counsel the beneficiaries, and ensure that Covid vaccination guidelines are followed,” the minister said.

The government also said as and when the vaccination centres become functional, its details will be uploaded on Co-WIN and beneficiaries will be able to book their slots.

Senior health officials said in the coming month, all 520 mohalla clinics will start vaccination camps in a phased manner. Currently, the Delhi government is running a total of 820 vaccination centres across the capital. Since Covid vaccinations started last year, the centre numbers have dipped slightly after schools, which used to be sites for vaccination camps, reopened for regular classes.

Health experts have welcomed the move and said mohalla clinics will be a good way to make vaccines more accessible to people.

“This will be good, especially for the economically weaker sections, who will find vaccines now at their local health-care facility. The more accessible we make vaccines, the better we will be at immunising our population against future waves,” said Dr KK Talwar, chief, Medical Council of India.