New Delhi: At the most recent DDMA meeting, where authorities decided to allow public Chhath celebrations and reopen schools for lower classes, the Delhi government was also directed by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority to ramp up Covid vaccinations to maximum capacity now that more and more activities are being allowed.
Officials said that the Delhi government was informed of there being ample stock of Covid vaccines and that now was the time to rapidly ramp up vaccinations to full capacity — higher than the current 75,000 vaccinations per day.
Significantly, officials have been mulling about different ways to increase vaccination coverage - one way out of these - suggested by the health secretary in Delhi, was to selectively incentivise and disincentivise Covid vaccinations.
For instance, officials suggested that Delhi could make vaccinations mandatory for public transport such as Delhi Metro and large public places such as shopping malls.
At the last DDMA meeting in September, when this suggestion was made, authorities were informed that as on September 27, 171.71 lakh Covid vaccine doses had been administered in the national capital and a change in strategy could be useful to target those still left out.
The vaccination capacity of government centres was increased to 3.2 lakh doses per day which was nearly a 40 per cent rise in the month of September, the meeting was told.
"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 read.
"Hence, it has been decided to have a focused approach to reach the balance eligible beneficiaries. For this purpose identification, mobilisation, setting up of camps, mobile teams with strong IEC campaign is being planned," it added.
NITI Aayog Member Dr V K Paul suggested that introduction of vaccine passports may be taken up in graded manner.
Meanwhile, the Capital on Wednesday reported 38 new Covid cases with zero deaths from the virus even as the positivity continued its streak below the 0.1 per cent mark. Total deaths due to Covid now stand at 25,091, according to official figures, and the active cases increased to 348 on Wednesday.