Vaccination on four days per week in Delhi; 81 sites finalised to begin with

On January 16, the drive will be carried out at 81 centres, which will gradually be increased to 175 and then to 1,000 across the city.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said Delhi is prepared to begin its vaccination drive from January 16. After reviewing the preparedness, Kejriwal said initially vaccination will be carried out on four days a week — Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. (HT photo)

On January 16, the drive will be carried out at 81 centres, which will gradually be increased to 175 and then to 1,000 across the city.

"So far, we have received 2,74,000 doses of vaccine from the Centre. Each person will be administered two doses and Centre provides 10% extra vaccine, taking damage into account. So the 2,74,000 doses will be sufficient for around 1,20,000 health workers," Kejriwal said hoping that the Centre will make the additional allocation of vaccines in the coming weeks.

According to the Centre's guideline, around 100 people will be vaccinated at each session.

Vaccines that arrived in the Capital in the past few days are being stored at Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital. A three-layer security cover has been put in place at Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital along with 15 new CCTV cameras recently to keep an eye on vaccine storage.

In the Capital, the vaccination drive will be kicked off from the LNJP Hospital on January 16 with a simple ceremony in the presence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and health minister Satyendar Jain.

Other vaccination centres of the Capital include the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Safdarjung Hospital, LNJP Hospital, GTB Hospital, Apollo Hospitals and Max Hospital etc.

The Delhi CM has also urged the Centre to make vaccines free for all people in Delhi and has promised that if the Centre fails to do so, the Delhi government would provide vaccine free to all people.