Vaccinations jump but supply unlikely to stabilise until Aug
New Delhi: Covid vaccinations in the city saw a sudden jump on Thursday as the Cowin portal of the Central government showed that the Capital had administered as many as 1.58 lakh doses till 10 pm. Significantly, this is not an indication of the vaccine shortage being addressed, according to several Delhi government officials, who said some form of stability is only expected from August onwards.
The Delhi government has been caught in a loop of seeking vaccines from the central government for over a month now and is expected to receive it only by July 20, one senior official in the Health department told Millennium Post.
According to the latest vaccination bulletin of the Delhi government, which lists the stock available as on the morning of Thursday, showed that the city had 2,58,000 Covaxin doses left in stock — all reserved for the second dose and around 3.16 lakh Covishield doses.
A senior official in the Delhi government disclosed that the Capital with a population of over two crores has 1.2 crore people in the above 18 age group, who mostly fall under the "urban category". "The central government is therefore giving us in bits as they allotted it to other states under the rural and urban population category," the senior state official said.
"We have been asking for 64 lakh of Covishield and 64 lakh of Covaxin vaccines from the Central government but we have only been given dates after dates. The vaccines are yet to arrive even though the CM along with officials have been talking to the Central government on the subject," a junior health official said on account of anonymity.
However, Delhi has the advantage of several private health care facilities where Covishield has been available for people to pay and get their shot and even Sputnik-V in the near future might be available easily.
"But several rural states in U.P and Bihar and Rajasthan with higher population comparatively do not have that option of easy access to private health facilities in which case the Central government has to distribute there as well," the senior official from the Health and Family Welfare department added.
The official added that from August onwards, the vaccine crisis will likely be managed as Covaxin will be manufactured in other places too. Several other vaccines will also be available in the market which will help ease the crisis, he said.
The national Capital recorded 93 fresh COVID-19 cases, and three deaths due to the disease on Thursday, according to data shared by the health department here.
The positivity rate stood at 0.12 per cent, same figures as on Wednesday. The three new fatalities have pushed the death toll in the city to 25,008, according to the latest bulletin. The number of active cases in the city now stands at 847.
