Despite the increase in Covid-19 cases and the Centre urging states to reach out to 100 per cent eligible population during the 'Har Ghar Dastak 2.0' campaign that started in June, Delhi’s immunisation drive has been slow. Only 3.17 lakh doses were administered in Delhi in the first fourteen days of June as compared to 3.2 lakh doses during the last fourteen days of May. Usually, the vaccination shoots up as cases start to increase. The data shows that there has been an increase in the number of precaution doses being administered in the city and a decrease in the number of shots given to children. The second phase of the door-to-door campaign is to focus on ensuring that children over the age of 12 years receive both their doses and those over the age of 60 years receive their precaution doses. As many as 58,766 doses were administered to children in the first fourteen days of June in comparison to the 93,835 doses administered during the last 14 days of May. As for precaution doses, 1.7 lakh doses were administered during the first 14 days of June as compared to 1.5 lakh in the last 14 days of May, according to data from the government’s CoWIN portal. So far, 1.8 crore first doses, 1.5 crore second doses, and 13 lakh precaution doses have been administered in the capital. Across the country, 96.3 per cent of all persons above 15 years of age have received at least one dose and 86.3 per cent have received both doses. The Centre’s door-to-door campaign was to focus on old-age homes, schools, and colleges, along with prisons and brick kilns to reach the out-of-school children. The states were also asked to review the administration of precaution doses to those between the ages of 18 and 59 years at private centres. Delhi is one of the states that has made precaution dose free for all adults.
