Delhi govt may propose mandating 1 vaccine dose to enter public places

New Delhi: The Delhi government is likely to propose to the DDMA to make the first dose of Covid vaccine mandatory by December 15 for entry to public places and also incentivise people with cash prizes, discounts and lottery to encourage them in getting inoculated, officials said on Thursday.

It may also be proposed that by March 31 next year getting fully vaccinated be made a must for entry to public places like malls and Metro stations, they said.

They cited examples of European countries that have adopted a vaccine transport system thereby limiting access to public places for the unvaccinated.

The officials also said that countries like the US, Philippines, Moscow and Mexico have incentivised vaccination.

In a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority held in September to review Delhi's COVID-19 situation, the city health secretary had suggested many measures, including making vaccination mandatory for entry to malls and metro trains.

"It is also the right time to de-incentivize/incentivize remaining beneficiaries for vaccination by making vaccination mandatory for entry into malls Delhi Metro, restaurants and offices," the minutes of the meeting read.

Meanwhile, ninety-five per cent of samples from Delhi sequenced at the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in the last six months were found infected with the Delta variant of the Coronavirus, government data showed.

Delhi has sent 7,281 samples for genome sequencing to the NCDC since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Genome sequencing data revealed the presence of the Delta variant in 2,709 of the 6,541 samples with lineages.

The government data showed 96 per cent of the samples sequenced in November had the Delta variant.

The highly contagious variant, responsible for the devastating second wave of COVID-19 in India, was detected in 99 per cent of the samples in October and 98 per cent in September, the data showed. Ninety-seven per cent of the samples in August, 91 per cent in July and 89 per cent in June had the same variant.

The data also showed that the maximum number of samples (1,900) were sequenced in April.

The genome sequencing laboratory at the Lok Nayak Hospital also found the Delta variant in 101 of the 105 samples with lineages.