Kejriwal appeals for help, says no doses left for 18+
Covid-19 vaccinations at government-run centres for the 18-44 age group will come to a grinding halt as the facilities will run out of doses by the end of Saturday , chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said, appealing the central government to replenish Delhi’s stocks and increase its allocation so that the city can inoculate its entire adult population in the next few months.
“Vaccination of the young population is halted from today because the doses that Centre has given us is over so the vaccination centres for young population will be closed. Few doses are remaining, which will be sent to some centres, which will be over by today evening. So from tomorrow, all vaccination centres will be closed,” the chief minister said at an online press conference.
Delhi needs 8 million doses per month to achieve its target of vaccinating its entire adult population in the next three months, Kejriwal said, adding that the city had received just 1.6 million shots in May and its allocation for June was even lower at 800,000 doses.
“It will take another 30 months (two-and-a-half years) for Delhi to inoculate everyone if the supply continues to remain at 8 lakh per month… In that time, we don’t know how many Covid-19 waves will hit the city and how many lives will the virus claim,” Kejriwal said.
The CM on Saturday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighting the issues. He also put forward four ways for the Centre to increase vaccine supply at a time when India’s vaccination drive has slowed down while states across the country are battling the lethal second wave of infections.
Underscoring the need to inoculate entire populations, Kejriwal suggested that the central government should direct companies in India within 24 hours to start manufacturing Covaxin, the vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research as the firm has agreed to share details of its production process with others to boost supply.
The Centre should also approve foreign-made vaccines within 24 hours, and negotiate with international vaccine makers instead of leaving it to the state governments to indidually procure doses, he said.
“Right now, the state governments in India are fighting to get vaccines from foreign manufactures. The Government of India should talk to these companies as they will take the central government more seriously,” he said.
Request countries that have procured additional vaccine doses to give them away, and give vaccine makers permission to manufacture doses in India, the chief minister added as part of his four-point plan suggestion to the Centre.
So far, over 5 million jabs have been administered in Delhi, and 25 million more doses are needed to vaccinate all adults in Delhi, Kejriwal said. Till Friday night, about 26% of the city’s population received at least one dose -- the latest electoral rolls put Delhi adult population at about 15 million -although the recipients are likely to include people from the neighbouring NCR towns of Noida, Ghaziabad, and Gurugram.
Hours after Kejriwal’s appeal, the Bharatiya Janata Party accused the CM of indulging in politics, and asked him to stop making “excuses” for his own administration’s handling of the crisis.
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