Delhi ready to receive, store, administer Covid vaccine to 51 lakh in priority category: Chief Minister.
The national capital is gearing up for the novel coronavirus vaccination drive and plans to set up 1,000 booths across the city where up to 1 lakh people could get vaccinated daily in phase one, a member of the state government's COVID-19 taskforce said on Monday.
"Maximum daily capacity would be up to 1 lakh per day - 100 people per booth. But it is important to note that if 80 out of the 100 registered in the Co-Win app for a particular day turn up, then only they will be vaccinated. We can't replace the absentees with other people. Each person will receive an SMS with date, time and place and those rules have to be followed," Dr Suneela Garg, a member of Delhi's COVID-19 vaccination taskforce and an advisor to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), told NDTV.
Vaccination booths will be set up at 48 government hospitals, 120 private hospitals, and Mohalla Clinics will also be used, she added.
To ensure fast coverage, there will be multiple booths at each hospital, Dr Garg said explaining: "All 3,900 staff members of the Lok Nayak Hospital are registered for the vaccine. If we set up only one booth then it will take us 39 days to vaccinate just the staff. Hence, we will look at setting up 5 to 6 booths within Lok Nayak Hospital and the staff can get vaccinated in about a week."
She added that in the first phase, only hospitals will be used as vaccination sites, but in subsequent phases, school buildings could also be added. All booths will be attached to 603 cold-chain storage points, she said.
At least 51 lakh people from three priority groups will receive the vaccine in phase one, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said recently.
This will include three lakh healthcare workers, six lakh frontline workers and 42 lakh people from the vulnerable group which includes people above the age of 50 and those below it but with comorbidities.
At least 3,500 healthcare workers have been trained to administer the vaccine. This includes doctors, dentists, Ayush doctors, pharmacists, nurses, auxiliary midwife and medical interns.
On Saturday, the Delhi Police had also directed its personnel to send their details by SMS so the "the date, time and place of vaccination can be intimated to each police personnel on their mobile number by SMS".
The country is preparing to vaccinate frontline medical workers and those directly involved in fighting COVID-19 first. For this, a two-day dry run has started today in four states with focus on management of possible adverse events after immunisation, cold storage and transportation.
However, a vaccine candidate is yet to be approved in India even as many other countries have started inoculating their population.
The Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech, both, have applied for emergency use approval in India, but have been asked for more data. Pfizer had also applied to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), but it is yet to make a presentation. Moderna is yet to apply.
India recorded 20,022 new COVID-19 infections on Monday taking the overall case count since the outbreak in January to 1.02 crore. Less than 3 lakh of those are currently infected with the coronavirus.
Daily cases have been dipping steadily in the country since hitting a peak in September, although the country still has the second-highest infections in the world, after the United States.