BackCovid vaccination without registration: 6-hour special window daily for people in Delhi
The Delhi health minister said that the service was initiated to assist people who are either facing issues registering themselves online or have missed their appointmentsHe said that lockdown is not a solution to deal with the rising number of infections
PremiumThe eligible but unregistered people in Delhi will now be able to get vaccinated between 3 pm and 9 pm every day, said state health minister Satyendra Jain on Saturday.
Jain said that the service was initiated to assist people who are either facing issues registering themselves online or have missed their appointments.
"People were facing difficulty in registration for vaccination, many people are not tech-savvy. Even if they get registered, they often get busy and fail to reach the centres. So, the government has decided to keep 3 pm-9 pm as a window when people can go for vaccination without registration," the health minister said.
He further informed that the national capital has increased the number of daily tests being conducted to combat the spread of the virus as Covid cases surge.
"There were fewer cases earlier but it has increased now. So, we have increased the number of testings and conducting 85,000-90,000 tests every day, which is more than 5% of the national average. We are also doing contact tracing and isolation," Jain said.
The minister stated that the hospitals in Delhi have sufficient availability of beds, if need be.
"The occupancy is around 20% now, 80% of the beds are unoccupied. We are monitoring this, if occupancy increases, we will increase the number of beds," he stated.
Talking about the steps being taken to keep the spike in cases in check, Jain said that lockdown is not a solution to deal with the rising number of infections.
"There is no possibility of lockdown. There has already been a lockdown and there was a logic behind it. At that time, no one knew how the virus spreads. It was then said that there is a 14-day cycle from being infected to ending the infection. Then the expert said that if all the activities are locked for 21 days, the virus will stop spreading. Even then the lockdown kept extending but despite this, the coronavirus spread did not stop. I think lockdown is not a solution," said Jain.
The statements came even as Delhi on Friday reported 1,534 new Covid-19 cases, 971 recoveries and nine deaths.
The total cases surged to 6,54,276 including 6,051 active cases and 6,37,238 total recoveries. However, the death toll touched 10,987 including the new deaths.
Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) said that amid rising Covid-19 cases in the NCT of Delhi, public celebrations for upcoming festivals such as Holi, Navratri and gatherings in general, should not be allowed.
The DDMA also said random testing (Rapid Antigen Test/RT-PCR) of passengers coming from other states where COVID-19 cases are increasing should be done all airports, railway stations, inter-state bust terminals, and other alighting points (for private buses).
Milestone Alert!Livemint tops charts as the fastest growing news website in the world 🌏 Click here to know more.
