Delhi’s Covid-19 vaccination numbers pick up, about 80,000 shots given every day last week

The high numbers are driven by immunisation of children in the 12-14 age bracket. There were only 4,340 shots administered on Sunday, of which 1,795 were in children between the ages of 12 and 14. Over the last week, 54.6% of the shots were administered in this age group.

“The numbers are picking up since school camps have been organised. Children are coming to get their shot even during the holidays. In the initial few days, the response wasn’t great because the drive started before Holi and people were either out of town or did not want to get sick before the festival. Parents were also initially hesitant about a new vaccine,” an official from Delhi’s health department said.

Children in the 12-14 age bracket are being administered BiologicalE’s protein subunit vaccine Corbevax. The two doses of the vaccine are to be taken one month apart.

So far, 2,86,591 shots have been administered in this age group, according to the government’s CoWIN portal. There are about 6 lakh children in this category. “The exact numbers are not known because every day, more children become eligible for it,” the official added.

Over 90% of adults in Delhi have been fully immunised. However, administration of the precautionary third dose has been slow. So far, 4,80,611 precautionary doses have been given in Delhi. With the government opening up the drive to all those above 60 years with or without comorbidities, 21 lakh general people, 2.4 lakh healthcare workers and 3.5 lakh frontline workers are eligible for it.

“The pace might increase if the government calls it a booster shot. People are not very keen to take a precautionary dose because they think they do not need protection now as the cases have gone down,” the official said.