JOIN US51 lakh to get Covid-19 vaccine in Delhi in first phase
Around 51 lakh people -- three lakh healthcare workers, six lakh front-line workers and 42 lakh with co-morbidities in all age groups -- will be administered Covid-19 vaccine in the first phase, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday.
He said one person will get two doses each, which means that 1.02 crore doses will be required in the first phase. At present, the Delhi government has a cold storage capacity for 74 lakh doses and it will be increased to 1.15 crore doses in the next five to seven days.
The administration has already identified officers and workers who would be required for the vaccination drive and have been trained. Each team will have five people.
"The vaccine will be administered to only those people whose registration has been done. Those people will be contacted via SMS and will be given full information regarding the vaccine roll-out," Kejriwal said.
He also said in case there are some post-vaccine side-effects on a person, the government has made proper arrangements for treatment of such patients.
Acknowledging that there has been a "significant decrease" in daily deaths due to Covid-19 in the capital, he said efforts should be made to further reduce it. The recovery rate has also considerably increased and people who got infected are getting recovered and going back to their homes, he said.
"But now, everyone is eyeing the vaccine. The Delhi government has made all arrangements for the administration of the vaccine to the Delhiites. The Delhi government is fully prepared to receive the vaccine from the Central government, its storage, and administering it to Covid-19 patients," he said.
The Centre has prepared three types of priority lists for the people who will be administered the vaccine because the production of the vaccine and the capacity will not be so much as to dispense the vaccine to the whole country, the chief minister said.
He said there are three lakh healthcare workers in Delhi, who will be among the first to be vaccinated. Front-line workers, including police personnel, civil defence volunteers and municipal workers, numbering around six lakh is another section in the priority list.
The third category is the people who are either above 50 years of age or are below 50 years of age and have comorbidities, such as diabetes or heart-related issues, which is around 42 lakh people in Delhi, the Chief Minister said.
Kejriwal had chaired a meeting on the rolling out and administering of the vaccine in Delhi. The health department officials gave a presentation on the preparedness.