New Delhi district leads in administering Covid precaution doses in national capital

The uptake of the precaution dose has been slow since the drive for the booster shot began in January this year. It picked up a little when the third dose was allowed for all adults in April and the Delhi government decided to provide it free of cost for all. So far, 11.5 lakh precaution doses have been administered across the city. This accounts for only 7.6% of the total 1.5 crore adult population in Delhi.

The Centre, in coordination with all states, has launched the ‘Har Ghar Dastak campaign 2.0’ which among other categories will especially focus on increasing the coverage of the precaution dose among those over the age of 60 and the second dose in children between the ages of 12 and 14 years.

(Source: CoWIN)

Not only is New Delhi district on top when it comes to the absolute number of precaution doses administered, it is also the best in terms of the proportion of population covered. With almost everyone receiving at least one dose of the vaccine in Delhi, if one considers the number of those who received the first dose to be the total number of eligible people in a district, it means that New Delhi has administered precaution doses in just over 14% of them. It is the only district with the number in double digits.

As for the other two high-performers, West district has administered precaution doses to 7.6% of its population and Northwest district to 5.78%. Barring New Delhi, the average uptake of precaution dose has been 5.8%. The total population, as indicated by dose 1 coverage, will also include children between the ages of 12 to 17 years, who are not eligible for a precaution dose yet.