Covid-19 vaccine to be given to 51 lakh people in first phase in Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal

The chief minister said currently Delhi has built and arranged storage capacity for 74 lakh doses of the Covid-19 vaccine

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said it has identified 51 lakh people who will be the first ones to get Covid-19 vaccination in the city under the Central government’s “priority category”.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. (HT Photo)

Addressing a digital press conference, the chief minister said currently Delhi has built and arranged storage capacity for 74 lakh doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. He said the storage capacity in the city will be increased further to 1.15 crore doses in a week’s time. Kejriwal further said that each of the 51 lakh identified persons is being registered and an SMS will be sent to the person’s mobile number notifying him/her about the date, time and place of vaccination.

“The corona situation in Delhi has improved over the past few days. The positivity rate has come down below 1% now. But, everyone is waiting for the vaccine now. The Delhi government has made all arrangements and is ready to receive the vaccine doses form the Central government, to store it and to administer it to the identified people,” he said.

Kejriwal addressed the media after he held a high-level meeting with health officials and other stakeholders on Delhi’s vaccination strategy.

He said the Central government’s “priority category” has been broken down to three parts: healthcare workers, frontline workers, and the elderly and those with comorbidities.

“Our healthcare workers such as doctors, nurses, paramedic staff and so on will be the first ones to get the vaccine does in Delhi. We have identified 3 lakh healthcare workers who will be vaccinated. Next, will be the frontline workers which include police, civil defence volunteers and municipal workers. There are 6 lakh such persons. Third category is of those who are 50 years of age or ilder and those below 50 years who have co-morbid conditions.There are 42 lakh persons under the third category,” said Kejriwal.

He said each person will be given two doses of the vaccine and the total estimated requirement of doses in Delhi as of now is 1.02 crore.

The chief minister said sufficient centres or camps will be set up fro administering the vaccine doses. “In case anyone develops side-effects, we also have teams of specialists ready to treat such people,” Kejriwal said.