Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said that about 8,100 healthcare workers will be vaccinated on Saturday, the day the countrywide coronavirus vaccination drive will begin.

“On the first day on January 16, people will be vaccinated at 81 centres,” the chief minister said at a virtual briefing. “Everyday almost 100 people will be vaccinated.”

Kejriwal said that people will be given the jabs on four day a week – Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. “Apart from these, there are two days when regular vaccine is given,” he said. “We do not want the vaccines from diseases to suffer. One day [the remaining day] is Sunday.”

The chief minister said that vaccination will begin at 81 centres on Saturday and the number of centres will be increased after a few days to 175 and finally to 1,000. Kejriwal said that Delhi has completed all the preparations for the vaccination programme.

He said that the Delhi government has received 2.74 lakh doses of the vaccine so far from the Centre, which would be sufficient for 1.2 lakh healthcare workers as the vaccine is given in two shots. The chief minister pointed out that 2.4 lakh healthcare workers have registered for the inoculation drive, and hoped that more vaccines would be provided soon to meet the needs.

“For the past one year, people are facing hardships because of corona[virus] and after getting these vaccines, I hope and pray to god that people will get rid of corona[virus],” he said.

Delhi has so far 6,31,249 Covid-19 cases, according to the Union Health Ministry. The toll stood at 10,718 and there are 2,991 active cases in the national Capital.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch India’s coronavirus vaccination drive on Saturday, NITI Aayog Member (Health) VK Paul has said.

Paul said that the vaccination programme will begin with 3,000 sites. Each place will vaccinate 100 people in day. He added that vaccination sites will be increased to 5,000 and more as the inoculation drive progresses.

The Centre is planning to inoculate 30 crore people over the next few months. About 3 crore healthcare and frontline workers will get the vaccine first. After that, people over the age of 50 and those with comorbidities will be vaccinated.

India has cleared two vaccines for emergency use – Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Serum Institute’s Covishield. On Wednesday, Bharat Biotech dispatched the first batches of its coronavirus vaccine to Delhi and 10 other cities. This came a day after the Serum Institute of India sent the first batches of its Covishield vaccine to 13 locations across the country.

Meanwhile, India registered 16,946 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, taking the overall count to 1,05,12,093. The country’s toll rose by 198 to 1,51,727. India’s active cases stood at at 2,13,603, while the number of recoveries reached 1,01,46,763.