Delhi is all set for the rollout of the Covid19 vaccine tomorrow at 81 centres with the city healthcare workers to be given the shots in the initial phase of this massive vaccination drive. A trio of doctor, nurse and sanitation worker will receive the Covid vaccine shots in the presence of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal at the staterun LNJP Hospital tomorrow.

While the vaccination exercise is set to begin in the morning, Kejriwal is slated to visit this largest Delhi government hospital.

“Hon’ble CM Shri @ArvindKejriwal will visit the LNJP Hospital on Saturday, January 16 at 12 noon, to inspect the COVID vaccination drive of the Delhi government,” the Delhi Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) tweeted.

The 81 sites include six central government facilities — AIIMS, Safdarjung Hospital, RML Hospital, Kalawati Saran Children Hospital and two ESI hospitals.

The other 75 centres, spanning all 11 districts of Delhi, include the Delhi government-run facilities such as LNJP Hospital, GTB Hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital, DDU Hospital, BSA Hospital, Delhi State Cancer Institute, ILBS Hospital, and private facilities such as Max Hospital, Fortis Hospital, Apollo Hospital and Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

A senior official on Thursday had said Oxford Covid vaccine Covishield will be administered at 75 centres while Bharat Biotech Covaxin vaccine will be given at the remaining six facilities. However, he did not clarify which of these hospitals will be the six centres where the vaccine made by Bharat Biotech will be used.

Kejriwal has asserted that the Delhi government is fully prepared for the vaccination drive, with over 8,000 healthcare workers to be given the shots every scheduled day in the national capital.

The Delhi government has received 2.74 lakh doses of the vaccine so far from the Centre, which would be sufficient to cater to 1.2 lakh healthcare workers, he said. “Every person will receive two doses, and the Centre has given 10 per cent extra in stock, in case of any mishappening, like damage of vials.

There are a total of 2.4 lakh healthcare workers in Delhi who have registered for vaccination, and more doses are expected to arrive soon,” the CM said.

The vaccine will be administered on four days of the week — Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. It will not be given on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays, when other regular vaccination will be carried out.

Each day 100 persons will be administered the vaccine at every site, Kejriwal said. The AAP-led Delhi government has announced that the Covid vaccine will be provided to people in Delhi for free. This immunisation exercise is voluntary.

Various hospitals, both government-run and private facilities, are also geared up for the vaccine rollout in Delhi. From Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in North Delhi to Apollo Hospital in South Delhi, hospital authorities said they were prepared for the exercise, with two dry-run already done in the past several days.

The first batch of Oxford Covishield vaccine containing 2.64 lakh doses had reached the Delhi’s central storage facility at Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital last Tuesday.

Also, 20,000 doses of Covaxin had arrived at the RGSSH on Wednesday, officials said.

Dr Suneela Garg, public health expert and professor of excellence at Maulana Azad Medical College here, said the rollout system will work akin to an electoral exercise. “Those who have registered themselves, will get an SMS message, ahead of the actual day of vaccination, telling about the location of the centre and the date of vaccination,” she said.

“At every site, one officer will check details and match it with those shown on CoWIN app for people, following which the necessary documents will be checked and then they will be taken one by one for vaccination,” she said.

There will be a nodal officer at each vaccination centre, which will have a waiting room, a vaccination room and an observation room, and social distancing norms will be in place. COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network or CoWIN app and its ecosystem will be used to manage and scale up the massive vaccination drive.

“Everything will be fed to the database in real-time. Also, the person after being vaccinated will be kept under observation for any AEFI (adverse events following immunisation),” Garg said.

Meanwhile, the national capital today recorded 295 fresh Covid cases — the lowest in more than eight months — even as Kejriwal and Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said that its positivity rate has dropped to an “all-time low” of 0.44 per cent. This was the twelfth time in January so far that the daily Covid cases count stood at below the 500-mark — and the sixth consecutive day since 10 January when the count stood below the 400-mark.

Kejriwal tweeted: “Well done Delhi! Delhi records the lowest number of Covid cases in the last 8 months. The positivity rate stands at an alltime low at 0.44%. With the resilience of the Delhiites, we are committed to fight and beat Corona.”

Jain tweeted, “Lowest number of cases recorded since 9th of May 2020. Positivity rate in Delhi has been dropped to all time low of 0.44%. Wear mask and follow social distancing to keep yourself and your family safe.”

According to the Delhi government’s latest health bulletin, the city’s Covid caseload climbed to 6,31,884 and the death toll mounted to 10,732 with 10 new fatalities. On 26 April, the city had recorded 293 cases, according to official data.

Today’s 295 cases were detected out of 66,921 tests including 38,990 RT-PCR tests and 27,931 rapid antigen tests, the health bulletin said. The active cases tally dropped to 2,795 from 2,937 the previous day.

The bulletin said that 427 Covid patients recovered in last 24 hours, which took the city’s cumulative coronavirus recoveries to 6,18,357 so far. The recovery rate rose to 97.85 per cent. The number of containment zones in Delhi dropped to 2,451 from yesterday’s 2,501, the bulletin stated.

The number of Covid patients under home isolation dipped to 1,275 from yesterday’s 1,311, the bulletin added.

(With input from Pti)