NEED 26 MILLION MORE DOSES FOR DELHI: KEJRIWAL

NEW DELHI: Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said Delhi’s current stock of vaccines against coronavirus will last only five to six days, and urged the central government and manufacturers to expedite the supply of doses so that every adult in the national capital can be inoculated within three months.

Giving a breakdown of figures, Kejriwal said Delhi has received 4 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines so far and it requires at least 26 million more doses to inoculate its entire adult population of around 15 million in the next three months. Out of these, nearly 20 million doses will be needed for the around 10 million people in the age group of 18-44 in Delhi.

“Today a major obstacle we are facing is that of vaccine scarcity. If we get adequate doses, we will be able to vaccinate the entire Delhi in three months,” the CM said at a digital news briefing.

Delhi is currently in the grip of its fourth and worst wave of Covid-19 infections that has overwhelmed the city’s health care infrastructure, leaving people to scramble for hospital beds and crucial medical supplies such as liquid oxygen and life-saving drugs in recent weeks.

On Saturday, Delhi added 17,364 cases and 332 deaths.

Amid this public health crisis, the eligibility for India’s vaccination drive, which began on January 16, was expanded to cover all adults under phase 3 from May 1. However, most states said they were not able to purchase shots for the 18-44 age group and won’t be able to kick off the third phase of the drive on time.

As per government data at 10am on Saturday, Delhi had a stock of 771,860 doses of vaccines, out of which 339,080 doses are procured by the city administration for those between 18-44 years and 432,780 are from the central government, meant for those 45 years old and above.