Only 5-6 days’ vaccine left in Capital: Kejri
Number of vaccination centres will be increased to 250-300, says CM
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said Saturday that Delhi has vaccines to last only another 5-6 days. Appealing to the Centre to give the city “adequate number” of vaccines, Mr Kejriwal said about 1 lakh vaccine doses are being administered in the city every day presently, and the daily figure needs to be increased to 3 lakh to vaccinate the entire population.
Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said the number of Covid-19 vaccination centres will be increased three times in Delhi and demanded that the Centre supply around 2.6 crore vaccine doses for inoculation of all the people in the national capital in the next three months.
Currently, vaccination is going on at 100 centres in Delhi. The number of centres will be increased to 250-300 by the Delhi government, he said in an online briefing.
In order to vaccinate all the people in Delhi, over 3 crore doses will be required, out of which around 40 lakh have already been received, he said.
The chief minister urged the Centre to provide it with 85 lakh doses per month so that every Delhiite could be vaccinated in the next three months.
He said that due to good arrangements in Delhi, people from NCR towns like Noida and Ghaziabad are also coming here to get the vaccines. So, Delhi will require a little more than 3 crore doses, he said.
He said that Delhi currently has vaccine doses to vaccinate people for the next 5-6 days and urged the Centre to provide adequate doses.
He said Delhi is currently administering 1 lakh vaccine doses per day and it could increase this number to 3 lakh.
The chief minister said Delhi’s population is 2 crore and close to 1 crore fall in the 18-44 age group. Fifty lakh are below 18 and 50 lakh people are above 45 years of age.
“Roughly, 1.5 crore people are above 18 years of age. We need 3 crore vaccine doses to vaccinate these 1.5 crore people, but we’ve received just 40 lakh doses. As a result, we need 2 crore 60 lakh additional vaccines,” he said.
Delhi has been vaccinating more than 1 lakh people every day. This includes around 50,000 people in the age group of 18-44 years and 50,000 aged 45 years and above, he said.
“Delhi is not getting an adequate amount of vaccines. If it were to get the required amount of doses, the Delhi government would be able to vaccinate all within three months,” Mr Kejriwal reiterated.
Citing warnings of a third wave of Covid-19, he said that vaccination is the only safeguard against the deadly virus. He also urged the Centre and the experts for finding alternatives to vaccinate children below 18 years of age.
“We are particularly concerned about children under 18 years of age who cannot get vaccinated right now. I appeal to all experts and the Centre to arrange a vaccine for them too so that they can also get inoculated,” the chief minister said.
Mr Kejriwal along with deputy CM Manish Sisodia also inspected a vaccination centre for the 18-44 age group which has been set up at Sarvodaya Girls Senior Secondary School in Chirag Delhi.