Govt jab centres for 18-44 to resume after two weeks
New Delhi: Announcing the daily vaccination bulletin, Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi on Wednesday said that Delhi government-run centres for free Covid vaccination in the 18-44 age group will finally resume in the Capital as fresh stocks had arrived in the city.
Atishi, who has been apprising the public on vaccine stocks for weeks now, said that the city had now received 1.25 lakh Covishield doses and 20,000 Covaxin doses from the share of the order it had earlier purchased for this month.
However, the Centre's new vaccine policy has now mandated that all vaccine stocks in Delhi from June 21 onwards will be provided by the Centre.
Delhi government centres for vaccination of the 18-44 age group have now been shut for two weeks due to low stocks. While the city had ordered for its requisite amount, it was later revealed that the Centre was also dictating the number of doses each state government could buy from the manufacturers.
Atishi said, "Today (Wednesday) we are very happy to announce that Delhi has received 1.25 lakh doses of Covishield and 20,000 doses of Covaxin. This means that the second dose for those between 18-44 years who had been administered with Covaxin is now available. Many such youngsters had been administered the first dose but were not able to find any place to get vaccinated with the second dose. Now Covaxin is available and people and people can get the second dose."
In addition to the second dose becoming available for the 18-44 age group, the fresh stock of Covishield will allow residents to fight over stocks for the next few days for their first dose as well.
Atishi said this was a most significant development because a lot of people have been complaining of a lack of slots. "The private hospitals were administering the vaccines at exorbitant costs. But now, the vaccines are available at the government centres of Delhi, free of cost."
The AAP MLA went on to say that the city had also recieved 30,000 doses of Covaxin for those above the age of 45, which were being distributed to the vaccination centres on Wednesday. "So, from tomorrow onwards, doses of Covaxin will be available for those above the age of 45 years. This means, whichever government centres where Covaxin was being administered to the 45+, there the second dose will be made available," she said.
As for the available stocks, the AAP leader said that as of Wednesday morning, Delhi had two days of Covaxin and 27 days of Covishield for those above 45 years of age and for the 18-44 age group, Covaxin only for the second dose and eight days of Covishield.
Meanwhile, Dy CM Manish Sisodia on Wednesday put pressure on the Central government to act and procure Covid vaccines for India's children. Sharing a newspaper report, Sisodia tweeted, "The world has started working on vaccines for children under age 12. Centre Govt should proactively do the needful to procure as many vaccines as possible to keep our children safe." Trials for Covaxin on children in India are currently underway.
