For 8th day in a row, Delhi sees fewer than 100 Covid cases

Last week, for the first time in a year, active cases in the city fell below 1,000. At present, there are 858 active cases.

Covid cases in Delhi have remained under 100 for eight days in a row, signalling a stabilisation in the situation in the city, which was worst affected by the second wave in April. Delhi’s positivity rate has remained around 0.12% for the past week, and the recovery rate is over 98% at present.

Last week, for the first time in a year, active cases in the city fell below 1,000. At present, there are 858 active cases.

On Wednesday, 93 Covid cases were recorded, alongside four deaths. So far, Covid has claimed 25,005 lives in the capital. Government officials have credited the strict lockdown and ongoing vaccination drive for the dip in cases.

Meanwhile, vaccine orders placed by the Delhi government last month will help the capital tide over the sudden shortage for two days.

According to Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, they had almost run out of vaccines on Tuesday evening. At night, however, 3 lakh vaccines, part of the state’s purchase order made last month, were received.

“We got around 3 lakh doses from state purchase last night, but this will suffice only for two days,” he said.

The city received a total of 3.2 lakh doses on Tuesday night. Of these, only around 12,000 were Covaxin. The rest were Covishield.

The Delhi government, which had placed an order for Sputnik V vaccines as well earlier, has not received any doses from the manufacturer so far, Sisodia said. The government had earlier said it was hopeful the vaccine would be made available in Delhi after June 20.

Delhi has been vaccinating an average of 1.5 lakh people per day. This, however, fell to 34,000 on Tuesday due to low availability. Almost 65.5 lakh people have received at least one shot of the vaccine so far and 19.5 lakh have received both shots.

As per the latest vaccine policy, states are supposed to get vaccines from the Centre. It is then their responsibility to vaccinate people. Private hospitals, meanwhile, can purchase vaccines from manufacturers. Earlier, states were asked to buy vaccines directly for the 18-44 age group from manufacturers. These were priced higher than doses for the Centre. The ones for private hospitals were priced the highest. The Centre was providing vaccines to states only for the 45-plus age group. This policy was in force between May 1 and June 21.

Many states had raised issues with differential pricing for Centre and state governments. States like Delhi and Maharashtra were forced to shut government vaccination centres for those in the 18-44 age group as there weren’t enough vaccines.

City officials, meanwhile, are worried about demand spiking starting August, as lakhs of people in the 18-44 age group who have got one dose of Covishield, will become eligible for the second dose.

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