Kids wait at a vaccine centre in New Delhi, to get the first shot, earlier this month. (Express Photo by Amit Mehra) Delhi will begin administering the second dose of Covid-19 vaccine to children aged between 15 and 18 from today (Monday) as those who had received their first dose on the first day of the immunisation drive on January 3 have completed the prescribed 28-day gap between two doses. This would mean that the vaccination, which has slowed down of late, will pick up pace again for a few days.
As many as 21,029 children took the first dose on January 3 when the drive was first opened for children.
So far, 806,109 children have been administered the first dose of Covaxin in the capital, accounting for 77.5 per cent of the estimated number of children in the age group in Delhi.
Only 10,095 doses were administered in total on Sunday. In comparison, last Sunday 11,723 doses were administered, and the week before 23,579. The Indian Express had reported that the Covid-19 vaccination drive in Delhi has slowed down with the capital reaching a saturation point β 100 per cent of adults have received the first dose and over 82 per cent have received the second dose.
βThe numbers will increase a little again as we start giving children their second dose of the vaccine from January 31,β said a Delhi government official, adding that the number of people receiving precaution doses is likely to increase after three months as most eligible people had the infection during the January surge in Covid-19 cases.
The government guidelines state a person should be vaccinated only three months after recovering from an infection.
So far, 2,71,310 precaution doses have been administered in the capital. A total of 9,70,000 healthcare workers, frontline workers, and people over the age of 60 years with comorbidities are eligible for the precaution doses. The persons currently eligible are the most vulnerable and the first to receive Covid vaccines after the drive was rolled out in January last year. As more and more people complete nine months after their second dose, the number of eligible people will increase.
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