Over 18,000 get booster shots in Delhi on Day One of drive

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Amid a surging third wave of Covid-19 infections, Delhi on Monday administered over 18,000precautionary doses, or booster shots, of the Covid-19 vaccine to senior citizens, health-care professionals and frontline workers, the government data showed.

According to government records, 300,000 people are eligible to get a precautionary dose in Delhi from January 10. The Delhi government data showed that on Monday, 18,795 precautionary doses (till 8pm) were administered and the recipients included 8,040 senior citizens, 6,212 health-care workers and 4,543 frontline workers.

According to the Co-WIN dashboard, which gives the latest vaccination counts, 18,835 precautionary doses were administered in Delhi on Monday. While the vaccination started slow, with only seven doses being administered at 9am, it soon picked up speed and 834 shots were administered by 10am, 2,834 by 11am and 3,051 by noon. By 9pm, the capital had administered 18,835 booster doses.

A senior official of the Delhi government’s health department said text messages were sent to all those aged 60 years or more, who have completed nine months since their second dose of vaccination, urging them to get the precautionary dose at the earliest.

Additional staff were also deployed at vaccination centres in the city to help senior citizens with queries and assist them during the process.

“Around 3 lakh (300,000) people are currently eligible to get the precautionary dose. The central government guidelines have stated that the third dose will be of the same vaccine as the one administered as the first and second doses; that is, if a person received Covishield doses in the first two rounds, the third dose will also be Covidshield and if she received Covaxin as the first and second doses, the booster dose will also be the same. When a person books an appointment on the Co-WIN app, the centres will be filtered accordingly,” explained the health official.

Many senior citizens, health-care and front-line workers who received their precautionary dose on Monday said they were looking forward to getting the third dose before the fresh wave of Covid cases, fuelled by the Omicron variant, start peaking.

“I received my second dose in April and several experts in news discussions had highlighted that immunity starts waning after six to seven months. That was worrisome, especially because Covid cases have started rising once again. The process to get the booster shot was quite simple— it barely took us an hour for the vaccination to get done,” said 69-year-old Shambhu Nath Rawat, who came to the vaccination centre being run out of an East Delhi Municipal Corporation school in Pandav Nagar.

Padmini Singh, a government school teacher who was also eligible to get the precautionary shot on Monday, encouraged maximum people to get vaccinated. She said she tested positive for Covid-19 last July, even after being fully vaccinated, but because she was immunised, her symptoms were mild.

“I am talking from personal experience — vaccines are lifesavers. I got infected in July and the only symptoms I had were loss of smell and slight fatigue. I recovered within a week. I fell ill at a time when so many people had a hard time even breathing and could not get the required help because the system was under so much pressure. I know the government has a responsibility to be prepared during the pandemic, but it is also our duty to be prepared against the infection,” she said.

Walk-ins and appointments will both be allowed for those eligible for the booster shot. There will be no need to register with a new account— the existing account on Co-WIN will have an additional section for “precautionary dose”. After getting the shot, one can also download the vaccination certificate from Co-WIN.

Delhi government officials said private hospitals that are functioning as vaccination centres can provide vaccines to their staff in their own hospitals and may foot the expense on their own or pass it on to beneficiaries.


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