‘Delhi needs 26 million doses to vaccinate all’
Kejriwal seeks 8.5mn doses per month so that all residents can be vaccinated in the next three months
NEW DELHI: Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said that the number of Covid-19 vaccination centres will be increased three times in Delhi and urged the Centre to supply around 26 million vaccine doses for the inoculation of all people in the national capital over the next three months.
At present, there are 100 vaccination centres in the city. The number of centres will be increased to 250-300 by the Delhi government, the Aam Aadmi Party leader said in an online briefing.
In order to vaccinate all people in Delhi, over 30 million doses will be required, of which around four million have already been received, he said.
Under the current phase of the country’s vaccination drive, everyone above the age of 18 is eligible to be vaccinated against the viral disease.
In this phase, states can also directly deal with vaccine manufacturers. In the first two phases, the Centre was sending vaccine doses to states as per their requirement.
The vaccine drive, which is the largest in the world, began on January 16, and Covishield and Covaxin are the two shots which are currently being used. The former is developed by Oxford University-astrazeneca and is being manufactured in India under the brand name Covishield by Pune-based Serum Institute of India, while the latter is the indigenous shot, developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Limited.
Both were given emergency use authorisation (EUA) in January.
The chief minister urged the Centre to provide the Delhi government 8.5 million doses per month so that all Delhi residents can be vaccinated in the next three months.
He said that people from the national capital region towns like Noida, Ghaziabad were also reaching here to get the vaccines. So, Delhi will require a little more than 30 million doses, he said.
“A lot of people from neighbouring cities - Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Sonipat, Gurgaon, Noida - are coming to Delhi to get their Covid shots because they’re liking the arrangements here. But we do not have enough vaccines. If we get doses in the right quantity, we can vaccinate the entire national capital in three months,” he said.
The chief minister said that Delhi currently has the stock to vaccinate people for next five to
six days and urged the Centre to provide adequate doses.
The chief minister said Delhi is currently administering 100,000 vaccine doses per day -around 50,000 people in age group of 18-44 years and 50,000 aged 45 years and above – and the government plans to increase this number to 300,000.
“Roughly 1.5 crore people are above 18 years of age. We need three 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 is not getting an adequate amount of vaccines, and if it were to get the required amount of doses then the Delhi government will be able to vaccinate all within three months, he reiterated. “A major obstacle we’re facing is that of vaccine scarcity. If we get adequate doses, then as I have said repeatedly, we will be able to vaccinate the entire Delhi in three months.”
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.
Delhi recorded 19,832 fresh Covid-19 cases and 341 deaths on Friday, according to the Delhi government’s health bulletin.