Delhi’s adult population won’t be fully vaccinated till next Aug at current rate of supply: Govt

For the month of August, Delhi has been allotted 16,79,660 doses – 14.72 lakh Covishield doses and 2.06 lakh Covaxin doses – by the Union government, which falls far short of the demand, according to the government.

The entire adult population of Delhi will not be fully vaccinated until next August at the current rate of vaccine supply by the Centre, according to the Delhi government, which has underlined the need for around 45 lakh doses per month till December to complete the vaccination drive by the end of 2021.

For the month of August, Delhi has been allotted 16,79,660 doses – 14.72 lakh Covishield doses and 2.06 lakh Covaxin doses – by the Union government, which falls far short of the demand, according to the government. It had raised the matter in a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Friday in the presence of representatives of the Centre.

In fact, in September, Delhi needs 60 lakh doses to ensure that its entire adult population is covered by at least one dose so that they become eligible to take the second dose by December. Till Saturday, 51.4 per cent of the adult population have received one dose and 19.42 per cent have received two doses.

According to a presentation made by the government, there are 1.5 crore eligible vaccine beneficiaries in the city, necessitating 3 crore doses to administer two doses.

So far, the Centre has allotted 1.01 crore doses to Delhi, of which 93.76 lakh were administered till August 5. This does not include shots administered at paid private facilities. Nearly 2 crore more doses are required to fully vaccinate the adult population.

At the DDMA meeting, the government presented two scenarios – one envisages 45 lakh doses per month till December and the other examines the situation if the current pace of vaccine allotment continues. “Scenario 1 – to complete two doses of all eligible beneficiaries by December, 2021, around 45 lakh doses are required every month. Scenario 2 – at present rate of vaccine supply, it will take till July/August 2022 to complete the two-dose vaccination of all 18+ years beneficiaries,” according to the presentation.

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