Suneela Garg, a key member of the task force handling vaccination in Delhi, confirmed that the vaccines would reach the public facilities, which consist of government hospitals and cold-chain storage points, would receive the vaccines on Friday. "The private hospitals will receive the vaccine doses early morning on the day of vaccination," she added.

 

Garg, who is also a public health expert and professor of excellence at the Maulana Azad Medical College, said that the inoculation process would start with a single booth at each vaccination centre where beneficiaries will be called in a batch of 10. "The number will be increased gradually. A maximum of 100 people will be taken by each site," she added.

 

Meanwhile, the officials from the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare, Delhi government, will conclude the re-inspection of all the cold-chain points which started on Tuesday after the vaccines arrived in Delhi. "It is done to ensure that there is no defect in the distribution system of the vaccines," a senior official said.

 

The Delhi government has finalised 89 sites for the first phase of Covid-19 vaccination drive where the doses will be offered to around three lakh healthcare workers working in different medical facilities in the national capital.

 

Of the 89 vaccination points, 49 are in private hospitals and the rest are public health facilities, as official said. The public facilities include 34 district-level government multi/super speciality hospitals, four government sub-divisional hospitals and two community health centres.

 

The vaccines will be distributed to these points from the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH), Delhi's only vaccine storage facility. It has received as many as 2.64 lakh doses of Covid vaccines, which landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) earlier on Wednesday.

 

The hospital has received 22 boxes consisting of 26,400 vials of Covishield, the Covid vaccine developed by Pune-based Serum Institute of India.

 

"A total of 22 boxes of vaccines have been received here. Each box contains 1,200 vials and each vial has 10 doses," Chhavi Gupta, spokesperson of RGSSH, told IANS.

 

The Central government had informed last week that the much-awaited Covid-19 vaccination drive will start from January 16. In order of priority, an estimated three crore healthcare and frontline workers will be administered the vaccine across the country, followed by those above 50 years of age and the under-50 population groups with comorbidities numbering around 27 crore.

 

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has approved two vaccines -- Covishield by Pune-based SII and Covaxin by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech -- for emergency use authorisation against Covid-19 in the country.