Teen vaccination slows down, over 76% covered so far: Data

New Delhi: Even as data from the Union government's Co-WIN portal showed that the Capital had administered the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to over 76 per cent of its eligible teenage population, the data points to a considerable decline in daily vaccinations in the age group ever since it reached the 70 per cent mark.

According to data from the Centre's CoWIN dashboard, 7.94 lakh beneficiaries in this age group received their first dose of the Covid vaccine by January 28. There are around 10.18 lakh teenagers aged between 15 and 18 in Delhi.

The central government had rolled out vaccinations for adolescents on January 3.

While the vaccination of minors picked up pace soon after the drive started, it has now slowed down considerably - even as Education Minister Manish Sisodia said last week that while Delhi government schools had successfully inoculated 85 per cent of eligible teens, private schools were not making enough of an effort.

As the drive began in the Capital earlier this month, the number of minors getting vaccinated every day would be around the high 40,000s or low 50,000s. However, after achieving the milestone of vaccination around 70 per cent of eligible teens, this number has dropped to the low 30,000s and high 20,000s.

In fact, between January 26 and January 28, only around 20,000 minors were vaccinated, according to data from Co-WIN as of Friday night.

Southwest Delhi has administered first dose to 1,03,921 adolescents. As many as 1,02,425 have taken jabs in northwest Delhi, 78,107 in northeast Delhi, 77,532 in west Delhi and 73,070 in Southeast Delhi.

Authorities in east Delhi have inoculated 68,887 teenagers, while 66,228 have taken their first dose in north Delhi, 55,324 in Shahdara, 54,385 in South Delhi, 48,940 in Central Delhi and 45,646 in New Delhi.

Northeast Delhi has the maximum number of 33 vaccination centres for this cohort, followed by West Delhi (30) and Southwest Delhi (24).

Meanwhile, the Delhi government has said that it has so far administered around 2.58 lakh precaution doses to those eligible (Healthcare workers, frontline workers and comorbid people above the age of 60), which is a little over 25 per cent of the eligible population.