Covid testing underway at Anand Vihar Sunday. (Express photo by Gajendra Yadav) The Delhi government has finalised 89 sites — including government and private hospitals — for the Covid-19 vaccination drive, set to begin from January 16 across the country.
Health Minister Satyendar Jain said, “The central government has finalised around 5,000 sites across the country. As per the Centre’s instructions, Delhi government has prepared these 89 sites — 40 government and 49 private hospitals. There will be one vaccination centre in every hospital and 10 healthcare staff will be deployed at each centre to handle the drive.”
The government has prepared a list of 2,25,000 healthcare workers who will be vaccinated in the first phase. “The first batch of vaccines will arrive by Tuesday or Wednesday. In the first phase, healthcare workers will be vaccinated. Thereafter, frontline workers and those aged above 50 will be given the dose,” Jain further said. The list of frontline workers will also include teachers who worked during the pandemic.
Jain said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has already requested the Centre to provide vaccines free of cost to every one across the country: “We are monitoring the situation very carefully. From our side, every decision regarding Covid vaccination will be for the benefit of the citizens of Delhi.”
Meanwhile, the city reported 399 new cases of Covid-19 and 12 deaths in 24 hours, taking the total number of cases and the death toll to 6,30,200 and 10,678 respectively. The overall positivity rate has been recorded at 0.51%, while the death rate based on data from the last 10 days is 2.94%.
Jain said the city has been witnessing less than 1,000 cases a day for the last 15 days. “The positivity rate was 0.65%.
For the last 15 days, Delhi has continuously witnessed a lower positivity rate… The Covid-19 situation in Delhi has improved a lot and is now under control,” he added.