New Delhi, Feb 11 (IANS): With a marginal increase, the national capital saw 15,807 beneficiaries being vaccinated on Thursday while it reported 12 incidents of Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI).

The inoculations witnessed a marginal increase from the previous day, when 14,743 people were vaccinated.

The hike in vaccination has followed after the Delhi government introduced 70 more sites. The number of vaccination sites has now reached 253.

The state government had announced earlier to ramp up the centres to 265.

While the number of the immunisation points were increased, the percentage did not. The national capital achieved 62.5 per cent of the target, against 80.5 per cent the previous day.

Dr Suneela Garg, public health expert and advisor to Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), told IANS that in addition to the upscale of vaccination centres, the optimum usage of vaccination sites are also important to complete immunisation of all priority groups.

"We have to vaccinate more number of beneficiaries at every site. We have the capacity to conduct upto 200 vaccinations in each session. The threshold of 100 vaccinations must be removed and more vaccinations should be encouraged at all the vaccination centres to inoculate a greater number of people," she said.

Garg suggested that the government should attach at least three vaccination centres to each cold chain point for mass coverage. India has currently around 29,000 cold chain points. The suggestion by Garg would increase the vaccination centres upto 90,000.

"It will automatically improve the daily average of vaccination which has stayed below 3 lakh so far," she added.