Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking relaxation in the rules pertaining to the opening of COVID vaccination centres and removing the age limit on vaccination in view of controlling the virus surge across the country.
The increase in the rate of transmission of COVID-19 across the country has, he stated, presented new concerns and challenges and the vaccination campaign needed to move more rapidly.
“If rules for opening new centres are simplified and everyone is allowed to be vaccinated irrespective of age, the Delhi government can vaccinate all Delhi residents within three months. In the fight against COVID-19, the Delhi government has had the support of the Centre at every step,” Mr. Kejriwal wrote.
Positive response
Expressing faith in the Prime Minister and hoping that he would look into his requests, Mr. Kejriwal said he hoped for a response in the affirmative.
“There is an urgent need to increase the number of vaccination centres. For this, the pre-conditions placed by the Centre regarding vaccination centres need to be relaxed,” he stated.
For example, according to the instructions of the Central government, Mr. Kejriwal said, vaccination centres can only be set up in hospitals or dispensaries. Initially, this was done to ensure that if someone had an adverse reaction to the vaccine, they could be treated immediately in the hospital.
The vaccination drive in the last three months, he wrote, had shown that the vaccine was safe. Therefore, he stated, his request was that this condition be removed so that largescale vaccination centres can be built in schools, community centres and other places.
It will be necessary to take precautions to ensure these relaxations do not put the citizens in harm’s way and the Delhi government will ensure that it takes all necessary precautions, he said. For example, arrangements for ambulances would be made at every centre.
“It [the vaccine] should be made available to everyone by removing the age limit. Except for those who cannot get vaccinated medically, we should start vaccinating everyone. The more people get vaccinated, the more we will be able to reduce the spread of the disease,” he stated.
