Flagging the acute shortage of Covid-19 vaccine doses in the national capital, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Monday said that Delhi has only one day’s Covaxin stock left and its Covishield doses will last for just three to four days.
The Minister’s remarks came a day after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urged the Centre to direct manufacturers to increase vaccine supplies to the capital between May and July.
“Covaxin doses can last up to one day only, while Covishield doses can last up to three to four days. We really want the entire population of Delhi to be vaccinated and are conducting a mass vaccination drive,” Jain told reporters amid his visit to Guru Teg Bahadur COVID Care Centre at Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib in central Delhi.
According to the Delhi government’s data shared by AAP MLA Atishi, the capital has so far received 5.5 lakh doses of coronavirus vaccines for the 18-44 category, and over 43 lakh doses for 45-plus, and healthcare and frontline workers.
Till Sunday evening, Delhi had 4.65 lakh doses of coronavirus vaccines available for those above 45, and healthcare and frontline workers, while 2.74 lakh doses were available for the 18-44 age category, Atishi had informed via a digital press conference.
Meanwhile, the city has administered around 39 lakh doses have been administered in the national capital so far.
Speaking on the falling positivity in the test samples, Jain said the dip in the positivity rate and the number of new infections over the last fortnight is a “glimmer of hope”.
“We can see a ray of hope now that in the past few days, not only is the positivity rate decreasing but a downfall in the number of cases is also being observed. The number of cases has reduced from around 28,000 to 13,000 now. The positivity rate has come down from a high of 36 per cent to around 20 per cent,” the minister stated.
He, however, said there’s no room for any leniency and urged everyone to keep their guard up.