A health worker administers a dose of Covid-19 vaccine to a beneficiary at a school in New Delhi. (Express Photo By Amit Mehra) Delhi administered only 9,503 Covid-19 vaccine doses on Sunday, which officials said was due to a saturation across all age groups, including children and those aged between 18 and 44.
Delhi has seen a slowdown in vaccination among the 18-44 age group also in the last week. Over the last four days (barring Sunday), around 29,600 doses were given on average to people aged between 18 and 44, according to data from the government’s CoWIN portal. The daily average number of doses administered in this category had remained over 40,000 towards the end of January even when the total numbers had started going down. At the beginning of January, more than 96,000 doses were being administered on average each day in this category.
“People are still coming in but the rush has slowed down. We have vaccinated a major chunk of the population. And now with the Covid-19 cases going down, vaccination is not the priority for people. People get relaxed when the threat is not immediate,” said a senior district official, adding that the uptake of the second dose among children between the ages of 15 and 17 years has also been slow.
There was a very high uptake among children when the drive was first opened for them on January 3, especially once the districts started organising camps in the schools. Over 80 per cent of the 1 million estimated eligible children had received their first dose by the end of January.
“Now that the final exams are nearing, many do not want to take the shot because they think they might get a fever,” the official said.
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