On the fourth day of vaccination in Delhi on Thursday, a total of 5,942 healthcare workers were vaccinated, which is the highest number so far. However, there were 24 adverse events following immunisation (AEFI), the Delhi government spokesperson said.
The number of people vaccinated on Thursday was about 73.3% of the target of 8,100 for the day. On the first day of the vaccination on January 16, 4,319 healthcare workers were vaccinated. On Monday, the figure was 3,598 and it was 4,936 on Tuesday.
Of the 24 AEFI on Thursday, 22 were “minor” cases while there were two cases of hospitalisation.
Delhi uses both vaccines for COVID-19, Covaxin and Covishield, from the first day. Of the 24 AEFI, 22 were from using Covishield and two from Covaxin. While the 22 cases from using Covishield were minor, the two cases from Covaxin were hospitalised.
There are a total of 81 vaccination sites in the city and each has a list of about 100 beneficiaries to be vaccinated every day. Initially, only healthcare workers, whose names were on the list, were allowed to get the vaccination.
On Tuesday, the Central government allowed people who are not on the list, but have been registered on the CoWIN platform earlier, to be vaccinated. This is one of the major reasons for the increase in numbers, according to officials.
Creating awareness
“Today, 100 healthcare workers were vaccinated in our hospital. We have been counselling our staffers for the last two to three days. A 10-member team has been working on this and telling our staffers that the vaccine is safe and there are no problems,” Suresh Kumar, Medical Director of Lok Nayak Hospital told The Hindu.
Multiple Delhi government officials said that they have directed heads of hospitals in their districts to request senior doctors to get the vaccine shots to motivate the staffers.
