Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said that Delhi was fully prepared and the government had made all arrangements to receive the COVID-19 vaccine from the Centre for storage and to administer to patients. He said this after attending a review meeting on vaccination steps.
In the first phase, he said, the vaccine will be given to 51 lakh people as earmarked by the Central government in priority lists, which include 3 lakh healthcare workers, 6 lakh frontline workers and 42 lakh people either aged above 50 or below but with co-morbidities.
Recovery rate
“There has been a significant decrease in daily deaths due to COVID-19 and we have to reduce it further. The recovery rate has also considerably increased. But now, everyone’s eyes are on the vaccine,” Mr. Kejriwal said.
“The Delhi government has made all arrangements for the administration of the vaccine to Delhiites. Around 51 lakh people come in our priority categories as defined by the Central government. These people have been marked and any work that is left will be completed soon,” he also said.
According to Mr. Kejriwal, one person will get two doses each, which meant that 1.02 crore doses will be required to be administered to 51 lakh people.
The Delhi government, he said, has cold storage capacity for 74 lakh doses, which will increase to 1,15,00,000 doses in the next 5-7 days. The vaccine will be administered to only those people whose registration has been done.
Such individuals will be contacted via SMS and be given full information regarding the vaccine rollout, the manpower and the number of teams that are required for the administration of the vaccine, such as, officers and workers have been marked and trained for the task and each such team would have five people, he said.
“In case we come to know about some post-vaccine side-effects on a person, we can provide treatment to such patients, such as the arrangement of doctors and adequate treatment methods,” he said.
“We are now eagerly waiting for approval of the vaccine in our country. As soon as we get the approval and as soon as Delhi gets the vaccine, we will be fully prepared to administer the vaccine to these priority groups,” he also said.