Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday appealed to the Centre to increase the vaccine quota for Delhi stating that vaccination centres for the 18-44 age-group had been shut down and inoculation halted due to the shortage of jabs in Delhi.
Writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard, Mr. Kejriwal made four suggestions to the Centre to tide over the lack of supply which included the distribution of international vaccines to States and the procurement of vaccine stock from nations that have more than they need.
“In the past 24 hours, only 2,200 cases have come up in Delhi. The infection rate has also declined in the past 24 hours and has come down to only 3.5%. But this does not mean that the dangers of COVID-19 have been stalled. It persists. We have to take every measure to save ourselves from the virus,” he told a digital briefing.
“From today onwards, the vaccination drive for the youth has come to an end. The vaccines that the Central government sent for the youth have finished. I am extremely saddened by the fact that we have to close down the centres for vaccinating the youth due to the non-availability of the vaccines,” he said.
Mr. Kejriwal said that Delhi needs 80 lakh vaccine doses every month in comparison to which the city had received only 16 lakh in the month of May and the Centre had further reduced the quota for it for the month of June. A letter received from the Centre, he said, stated that the city would be issued 8 lakh vaccine doses in June.
Till now, he said, the Delhi government had administered a total of 50 lakh vaccine doses and needed 2.5 crore more to vaccinate all the adults in Delhi.
“At this pace, if only 8 lakh vaccines are provided every month, it will take 30 months to vaccinate all adults in Delhi. Till then no one knows how many waves and deaths due to COVID-19 will be witnessed. To save lives, we have to immediately increase the availability of the vaccine in the country,” he said.
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“For this, I have four suggestions. Firstly, Bharat Biotech which manufactures Covaxin is ready to give its formula to other companies. There are several vaccine-making companies in the country. The central government should immediately invite all those companies and give them an order that all those companies should start rapidly making vaccines,” he also said.
In the next 24 hours, he said, all these companies should b e called and given this order since every day was precious. He also suggested that all foreign vaccines should be given immediate permission to be used in India.
The Centre, he said, should also buy vaccines from foreign manufacturers and distribute these among States. His third solution was that the Centre should plead with other nations which had stocked up on vaccine doses for their populations to share these with India.
“The Government of India should plead for giving those vaccines to India. The fourth suggestion is that all foreign vaccine manufacturing companies should be immediately permitted to manufacture vaccines in India,” he said.
“It is my request to the Central government that vaccines should be made available to Delhi as soon as possible. The maximum number of lives of the youth have been lost in the second wave, ” he said.
