Shortage: Vaccination for 18-44 group to be temporarily suspended in Delhi

The Delhi government will have to temporarily stop the Covid vaccination drive for the 18-44 age group from Monday as it has almost run out of vaccines for this category, informed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Atishi on Friday.

She said that Delhi has already shut 235 of the total 368 inoculation centres for this age group due to a shortage of vaccines. “The remaining 133 sites will be shut on Saturday, which means the inoculation drive for this age group will have to be stopped temporarily from Monday,” she added.

Only 42,380 doses were left for the 18-44 category as on Friday morning, said Atishi. Of these, Covaxin doses accounted for 3,010, and Covishield for 39,370.

She said that for the category comprising healthcare and frontline workers and the 45-plus age group, less than a day’s stock of Covaxin is left with the Delhi government, while the Covishield stock can last up to eight days. Out of the 2,53,710 vaccine doses left for this category, 41,888 are of Covaxin and 2,11,822 of Covishield.

As many as 77,438 vaccine doses were administered in Delhi on Thursday, she added.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia said the total count of Covid vaccine doses administered in Delhi crossed the 50 lakh-mark on Friday.

In a tweet, Sisodia said, “Delhi has crossed total 50 lakh vaccination doses benchmark today (including 1st and 2nd dose). But it’s unfortunate that we have to close our centres, for 18+ age group, because of non-availability of vaccines.”

Earlier in the day, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had also said that many inoculation centres for the 18-44 age group would be shut in Delhi from Friday as the city has run out of vaccines for them.