Delhi: Vaccine net widens, 49k people get their first shot

With the inclusion of those above 45 years, an additional 65 lakh people are now eligible for the vaccine in the capital.

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Covid-19 vaccination underway at Sanjeevani Hospital on Thursday. (Express Photo by Amit Mehra)

4 min readNew DelhiApr 2, 2021 02:21 AM IST First published on: Apr 2, 2021 at 02:21 AM IST

As the Covid-19 vaccination net was widened on Thursday, Delhi saw 56,531 people getting a vaccine shot. Of these, 49,471 received their first. On Wednesday, 25,282 people were vaccinated.

With the inclusion of those above 45 years, an additional 65 lakh people are now eligible for the vaccine in the capital. A total of 13.3 lakh people have been given at least one shot so far. Over 2.6 lakh have received both shots.

Most beneficiaries did not complain of glitches while registering on the Cowin portal or at hospitals, unlike in mid-January when the vaccine rollout began and saw many complaints of the portal hanging.

At Aruna Asaf Ali Hospital, 31 people aged 45 and above arrived at the vaccine centre. Among them was a 50-year-old woman who lives with her family at Rana Pratap Marg and works as an accountant at a private school. Expressing relief in getting the vaccine, she said: “I do not have any co-morbidities, and I have been waiting for long to get the vaccine. My husband and my mother-in-law are also vaccinated.” After sitting for 30 minutes in observation, she was advised to continue with precautions like wearing a mask.

A doctor at the hospital’s vaccine centre said as per the pattern that has been observed, more people come in the morning than in the afternoon. By late afternoon, the crowd had thinned.

At Primus Super Speciality Hospital in Chanakyapuri, over 60 people came for the first dose. A 47-year-old woman living at Green Park extension said, “I have been taking precautions and will continue to do so. My family and I have planned a trip to Goa next week and my four children insisted I get it.”

Doctors at Primus too said more people arrived for vaccination in the morning.

Gurgaon: 11,070 over 45 years get vaccine

At Gurgaon, meanwhile, a total of 11,070 people were vaccinated on Thursday. As per data shared by the health department, of the people above 45 years of age who were vaccinated, 8,480 beneficiaries were vaccinated at government hospitals and 2,590 at private hospitals.

“A total of 210 vaccination centres have been set up in Gurgaon to vaccinate people of or above the age of 45. Of these, 153 are government centres while the remaining are in private hospitals,” said Chief Medical Officer Dr Virender Yadav.

“The vaccination has proceeded smoothly, there have been no issues. The coverage has been good… we have also been setting up camps at condominiums to reach more beneficiaries, and similar camps are now being set up at big corporate offices as well,” he said.

Apart from people above 45, 452 healthcare workers and 749 frontline workers were also vaccinated on Thursday, bringing the count of beneficiaries to 12,271.

Officials from the health department said their target in terms of vaccination between Tuesday and Thursday was 40,000, which they managed to achieve by vaccinating a total of 41,595 people during this period.

Gurgaon on Thursday recorded its highest count of new cases in almost four months, with 381 testing positive. The last time the number was this high was on December 10, when 398 cases were recorded. There are 2,148 active cases in Gurgaon. Keeping in mind the surge in cases, Gurgaon District Magistrate Yash Garg had, on Wednesday, directed all hospitals to reserve 50% of their total bed capacity for Covid patients.