Half of govt vaccination centres for 18+ group shut, says AAP MLA Atishi

In the government’s vaccination bulletin issued online on Tuesday, Atishi said the position is “quite comfortable” for people aged 45 and above, and over 50% eligible people in this group have been vaccinated.

Half of the government vaccination centres for people in the 18-44 age group closed down on Tuesday and the remaining half will shut the next day if stocks were not replenished, AAP MLA Atishi said and appealed to the Centre to “carry forward” the vaccination for the category.

AAP leader Atishi Marlena (Screengrab)

“As offices and markets are reopening, the young segment will venture out more, and therefore, it was important that they would get vaccinated. Our drive for the 18+ years category was picking up pace, but for lack of doses, it has slowed down again,” she said.

In the government’s vaccination bulletin issued online on Tuesday, Atishi said the position is “quite comfortable” for people aged 45 and above, and over 50% eligible people in this group have been vaccinated.

She said for people aged 45 and above, as on June 15 morning, 795,000 doses were available, of which Covaxin doses will last for 22 days and Covishield doses for 43 days.

On June 14, a total of 60,734 vaccine doses were administered, taking the total number of doses given till date to 6,150,931, according to the bulletin.

For healthcare workers, frontline workers and 45 and above age group, 784 centres are running at 626 locations, while for the 18-44 group, 64 centres across 36 locations were earmarked, the bulletin said.

Talking about the Delhi government’s “Jahaan vote, wahaan vaccination” drive, Atishi said around 66,000 people in the 45+ age group have been vaccinated since June 8 since the programme was launched that involves sending booth level officers to every household and convincing the beneficiaries in the said age group to take the shot against Covid-19.

The initiative involves setting up temporary vaccine sites in polling booths across the city. It is a four-week exercise under which 70 municipal wards are chosen every week. Delhi has around 280 wards. The aim is to increase vaccine coverage for beneficiaries in the 45+ age group.

“During the door-to-door drive, we came across a large number of people who were hesitant to take the vaccine. We can cover more beneficiaries in the 45+ age group only by increasing vaccine coverage among the younger age group (18-45 years). At this stage, vaccine stocks for the 45+ group is not a problem. We are running out of stocks for the 18-45 group. We hope that the crisis gets resolved soon,” Atishi said.