89 locations identified as Covid-19 vaccination centres in Delhi

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said the first batch of vaccines is likely to arrive by Tuesday or Wednesday

Covid-19 vaccination will be held at 89 locations -- 36 government and 53 private hospitals -- in the national capital in the first phase starting from January 16, Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Sunday.

Jain said that the first batch of vaccines is likely to arrive by Tuesday or Wednesday and health workers will be the first ones to be vaccinated followed by frontline workers and those above 50 years with comorbidities.

Around 8-10 healthcare staff will be deployed for the vaccination programme in each location. "We are fully prepared to roll out the vaccination programme. We will administer the vaccine as soon as the doses arrive," Jain said.

He said the city has enough cold storage facilities to store the vaccines.

Read: India's Covid-19 fatality rate declines to 1.44%; daily deaths below 300 for last 16 days

Jain also said that the Delhi government has urged the Centre to provide vaccines free of cost for the entire country but refused to comment on whether the administration would foot the bill in case the plea is rejected.

"Wait for the final decision of the Centre. We will wait," Jain said.

Asked about the inclusion of teachers in the first phase of vaccination by identifying them as frontline workers, he said it would not have much impact on the numbers. He said that the earlier estimation of 3-4 lakh healthcare workers for vaccination has come down to 2.25 lakh and the addition of teachers would not have an adverse impact.

Meanwhile, the number of Covid-19 cases remained below the 1,000-mark for over 15 days with Sunday reporting 399 cases and the positivity rate at 0.51%. On Saturday, there were 519 cases while the positivity rate was 0.65%.

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The total number of cases has now touched 6,30,200 lakh while the death toll stands at 10,678. The recovery rate has touched 97%.

The number of active cases dropped to 3,468 from 3,683 the previous day. "The Covid-19 situation in Delhi has improved a lot and it is now under control," Jain said.

On January 1, there were 585 cases while on January 2, it was 494 and 424 the next day. On January 4, the cases were 384, followed by 442 on January 5, 654 on January 6, 486 on January 7, 444 on January 8 and 519 on January 9

On December 29 and 30 last year, the city had recorded 703 and 677 fresh coronavirus cases respectively while 574 cases were reported on the last day of 2020.