Healthcare workers can get doses ahead of scheduled date of vaccination: Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain

Seeking to encourage people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, the Delhi government has made a provision whereby healthcare workers will have an option to get shots at a registered centre ahead of their scheduled day for vaccination, Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Thursday.

Interacting with reporters, he also said that all efforts will be made to ensure minimal wastage of vaccines.

"We have reached a milestone of one crore COVID tests, meaning nearly half of Delhi's population we have tested so far. The cases are coming low now, it was 228 yesterday with a positivity rate of 0.36 per cent. So, we can say the pandemic situation is under control," Jain said.

Asked if Delhi will eventually see zero cases of COVID-19, he said that swine flu subsided but cases still get reported, so the pandemic will go away but it is very difficult to say no cases will be recorded.

On the low turnout of healthcare workers for vaccination, the minister said they are being encouraged and they are coming forward now.

"In fact, we have made a provision, whereby a healthcare worker will have an option to get a vaccine shot at a registered centre ahead of scheduled day for vaccination. So, if it is scheduled for 15 days later, his or her name can be found from the database so that the jab can be given earlier," Jain said.

Over 4,900 healthcare workers had received COVID-19 vaccine shots in Delhi on January 19, the third scheduled day of the immunisation exercise here, a marked increase in figures reported the previous day, according to data shared by officials.

However, the number of people who were vaccinated on Tuesday, was only 48 per cent of the targeted figure of 10,125, as per the data.

The numbers on Saturday and Monday were 4,319 and 3,598 respectively. Thursday is the fourth scheduled day of vaccination in Delhi.

Jain also said the low number of active cases was also "satisfactory".

Asked about the number of new coronavirus strain cases in Delhi, he said, "Seventy were admitted at the LNJP Hospital, and all were mild cases".

Sources said nearly all of them have been discharged. Till January 9, only seven such patients were left at the hospital.

As the number of tests conducted in Delhi to diagnose COVID-19 crossed the one crore-mark, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday hailed the milestone as a "new record" for the city.

In a tweet, he had also asserted that the national capital has "successfully contained the scale and spread" of the infection.

Delhi recorded 228 fresh COVID-19 cases and 10 deaths on Wednesday, taking the infection tall in the city to 6,33,049, even as the positivity rate stood at 0.36 per cent.

The death toll mounted to 10,774 with 10 new fatalities, authorities had said on Wednesday.

The number of tests done per million, as on Tuesday, was over 5.29 lakh while the total number of tests stood at 1,00,59,193, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department

On Monday, the city had recorded 161 cases, the lowest in nearly nine months with a positivity rate of 0.32 per cent. On Tuesday, 231 cases were reported.

These 228 new cases came out the 63,151 tests conducted the previous day, including 32,957 RT-PCR tests and 30,204 rapid antigen tests, the Wednesday bulletin said.