New Delhi: Over 70 per cent of eligible teens in the Capital have now received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, according to data from the Union government's CoWIN portal, which said that as of Thursday night, more than 7.08 lakh of the around 10 lakh teenagers between the ages fo 15 and 17 had been vaccinated with one dose.
While the drive was slow to pick up in the first few days of this year, children have turned up in large numbers for their vaccination dose — with many saying that the Omicron variant-fuelled third wave was pushing them to sign up for it.
Data from district authorities, available with the Delhi government showed that over 40,000 teenagers have been turning up for their vaccine almost every day since the drive began with some days the figure cross the 50,000-mark as well.
The vaccination of minors takes significance as the Delhi government has maintained that the safest way to reopen physical classes for school children would be if they are first vaccinated. But even as the eligible group of teens is set to be vaccinated with at least dose by the end of the month (at the current rate), the Union Government is yet to clear the way for vaccinating children below 15 years.
As recently as two days ago, the Union Health Ministry said that they are yet to take a call on vaccinating children in the 12-14 age group.
Meanwhile, the pace of precautionary doses being administered in the city is slacking off due to the relatively lower turnout among healthcare workers owing to a large number of them being infected during the most recent surge.
According to the Delhi government's own estimates, there are around 3 lakh healthcare workers in the city who have been marked as such — meaning so far, just a little over 11 per cent of registered healthcare workers have received the third dose of the vaccine. Significantly, of all the third doses administered in the city, a little over 25 per cent have been given to healthcare workers and nearly 50 per cent to frontline workers.
While the first two days of the drive saw nearly 6,000 to 7,000 health workers taking the third dose, this number has dropped to the high 2,000s and low 3,000s since.
According to CoWIN's latest data, a total of around 1,89,000 precautionary doses have been administered in the Capital with the lion's share going to those marked as frontline workers.