Ready to vaccinate 8K healthcare workers a day for starters, says CM

New Delhi/Noida/Gurugram: CM Arvind Kejriwal said that his government had made all the required arrangements for administering the Covid vaccine across the Capital. The inoculation drive scheduled for January 16 will begin with 81 sites where 100 people will receive the vaccine each day at each site, the CM announced on Thursday.

While addressing a digital press conference, he said that the state government has received 2,74,000 vaccine doses from the Central government, which will cater to around 1.2 lakh healthcare workers in the first phase.

"As you know, every person will receive two doses, and the government gives 10 per cent extra in case of any mishappening. The 2,74,000 vaccine doses received are sufficient for approximately 1,20,000 healthcare workers. Around 2,40,000 healthcare workers have registered across Delhi. We hope that we will receive the vaccine required for the remaining healthcare workers in the coming days," Kejriwal said.

Around, 8,000 healthcare workers will be vaccinated across Delhi on a single day initially, he added. The vaccine will be administered four days a week — on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, the rest of the days have been spared for the routine vaccination process.

"The rest of the days have been spared for the routine vaccination process. We are starting with the vaccination process at 81 centres, which will be increased to 175 centres in the coming days. Around 1,000 centres are being prepared across Delhi for the vaccination process," he said.

"The Delhi government is fully prepared for the administration of the vaccine. Around 8,000 healthcare workers will be vaccinated across Delhi on a single day initially," he added.

Delhi recorded 340 fresh COVID-19 cases and four deaths on Thursday, the daily fatality count dropping to a single digit after several months, even as the positivity rate slipped to 0.48 per cent.

This is also the eleventh time the daily incidences count stood below the 500-mark in January.

The Delhi government has extended till January 31 its earlier order asking people coming from the UK to undergo institutional quarantine in the wake of the new variant of coronavirus.

Meanwhile, with all administrations now preparing for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, NCR cities Gurugram, Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad received their first doses of the vaccine on Thursday.

Gurugram received 96,880 doses of COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, which arrived from Kurukshetra.

Of the 96,880 doses, 85,480 doses are of Covishield, while 11,400 doses are of Covaxin. Of the Covishield vaccine, Gurugram vaccination centres will get a maximum number of vials with 44,950 in number. Along with Gurugram, these doses will be further supplied to districts of Faridabad, Nuh, Palwal and Rewari.

According to officials, both the Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad districts have been supplied with 2,884 and 2,741 vials of Covishield vaccine, respectively.

Each vial has 10 doses which will be administered to health care workers and frontline staff from the nationwide vaccination drive starting

from Saturday, said a senior health officer.

The vaccines have been stored at the district vaccine store at the chief medical officer's (CMO) office at Sector 39 in Noida and MMG hospital in Ghaziabad.

About 24,453 doctors and medical staff have been identified for vaccination under the first phase in GB Nagar while about 21,800 have been identified in Ghaziabad under the entire phase-I. In GB Nagar the number of booths are 80 while in Ghaziabad the count is 70. In Ghaziabad, the four centers identified are Yashoda Hospital at Nehru Nagar and Kaushambi, Health Center Muradnagar and Vasundhara. The health department is focused on administering 400 doses of vaccine on the inaugural day.

Meanwhile, two days ahead of the COVID-19 vaccination rollout, authorities on Thursday released the list of 81 sites that will be part of the immunisation exercise here, with a senior official saying Covishield will be administered at 75 centres, while Covaxin will be given at the remaining facilities.

The sites, with nearly an even split of government and private hospitals, include six central government facilities — AIIMS, Safdarjung Hospital, RML Hospital, Kalawati Saran Children Hospital and two ESI hospitals. A senior official in the Delhi Health Department, when asked, however, did not clarify which of these hospitals will be the six centres where the vaccine made by Bharat Biotech will be used.