On Wednesday, a member of Delhi governments COVID-19 taskforce stated that as India is awaiting the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, Delhi is gearing up for the immunization drive and intends to vaccinate all the healthcare workers in the city within 5 days.

The Delhi government will administer the COVID-19 vaccine to 51 lakh people in the 1st phase. At first, it will be given to 3 lakh healthcare staff, six lakh frontline employees, and 42 lakh people either more than 50 years of age and below 50 years having co-morbidities.

Dr. Suneela Garg, who is a member of Delhi governments coronavirus taskforce and advisor to ICMR said that three lakh healthcare employees will receive the vaccine in five days. They want to complete the whole process soon with proper protocol.

Delhi has 603 cold chain points and 1,000 immunization sites would be set up at 48 government hospitals along with 120 private hospitals and Mohalla Clinics. Dr. Suneela further said that 100 people will be inoculatedin these 1,000 sites daily.

The Delhi government will increase the immunization points, according to the requirement. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the manpower and the number of teams required for the city related to the administration of the vaccine, like officers and workers, are selected and trained for the duty. Each team will be having five people. They have trained about 3,500 healthcare staff for the vaccination process.

As per the Delhi government, the COVID-19 vaccine will be administered only to people who have registered. These people will be contacted through SMS and will be given detailed information related to the vaccine rollout.

Each person will get two doses. Almost 1,02,00,000 doses will be required to administer 51 lakh people. Delhi has the cold storage capacity for 74 lakh doses and will ramp up to 1,15,00,000 doses.

The Central government is planning to immunize approximately 30 crore people in the 1st phase of the initiative. Later, it will be given to one crore healthcare employees, two crore frontline and essential staff and 27 crore elderly people above the age of 50 years along with comorbidities.

Currently, India has eight COVID-19 vaccine candidates, which includes three indigenous vaccines, and are under different stages of clinical trials and will be ready for authorization in near future. Bharat Biotechs Covaxin, Serum Institute-Oxfords Covishield and Pfizer vaccine are also in the line for emergency use authorization.

Source: ET Healthworld