With Delhi facing shortage of Covishield vaccine, several districts in the national capital have reserved 80% of their Covishield stock for people who have to get the second dose, as per government sources.
The Delhi government is also considering reserving its Covishield stock only for those getting a second dose.
“Till now, the government had given flexibility to the districts to decide what percentage of Covishield should be kept for second dose. Many districts increased it to 80%,” a Delhi government source said. “But now the government will make it more rigid for all districts and the government is thinking to reserve the complete Covishield stock or 80% of the stock only for second dose for all districts,” the source said.
The government is considering the move as a large number of people above 18 years will be soon eligible for the second dose.
The development was confirmed by another second, but the Delhi government is yet to officially announce anything on the issue. In June, the Delhi government had reserved Covaxin only for people in the 18-44 age group getting their second dose, due to a shortage of the vaccine.
The COVID-19 vaccination drive was opened for people above 18 years of age on May 1 across the country and the second dose of thousands of people who took the first dose of Covishield in Delhi will be due this month.
Delhi has been facing a shortage of Covishield vaccine for about 10 days and the current stock of COVID-19 vaccines in the city will last for less than one day, as per a vaccination bulletin released by the Delhi government on Tuesday.
The city faced a similar situation on most days of last week and Health Minister Satyendar Jain had said on July 12 that 500 vaccination centres had to be closed due to vaccine shortage.
Now also many centres are shut due to the vaccine shortage, mainly of Covishield, as per officials.
25,986 doses
Only 25,986 doses of vaccines were administered in the city on Monday as per the bulletin, which is far less than the 1,29,054 doses administered on July 13.
The city continued to see a downward trend in new COVID-19 cases with only 44 fresh cases reported over 24 hours, taking the tally to 14,35,609, according to a health bulletin. There were five deaths in a single day, pushing the toll to 25,035.
Earlier in the day, Kolhapur Road Market, which is a part of Kamla Nagar Market, was directed to close for two days for not following COVID-19 guidelines, according to an official order.
