Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday, 22 May, announced that due to a shortage of vaccines for the 18-44 age group, the national capital is halting COVID-19 vaccinations for this age group.
“Vaccine stock for this category has been consumed. Due to this, vaccination centres for the youth have been shut. Only a few vaccines are available at some centres which will be get over by today,” CM Kejriwal said.
The CM expressed his dismay at having to shut vaccination centres for this age group and said that they have written to the Centre asking for more vaccines.
“As soon as we get more vaccines, we will reopen these centres,” he said.
Responding to this claims, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said, “Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is continuously doing politics in the name of Delhi. Now he has demanded vaccines from the Centre. The Union government has already provided 50 lakh vaccines to Delhi & going to provide them more in the coming days also,” reported ANI.
‘At This Pace Will Take 30 Months to Vaccinate Adults’
Delhi needs 80 lakh COVID-19 vaccine doses a month to inoculate the capital’s entire population, CM Kejriwal said.
“Delhi received only 16 lakh vaccines in May and we have been told that we will receive only 8 lakh vaccines in June. If this is the pace then it will take 30 months to vaccinate just the adults.”Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a letter to PM Modi
Delhi has already administered 50 lakh doses of the vaccine to its population, he said, adding that in order to inoculate all adults in the capital, 2.5 crore more doses were required.
The CM asked the Centre to send more doses as soon as possible along with increasing Delhi’s quota of vaccines.
Suggestions from CM to Centre
Vaccines are most effective against COVID-19, the CM said, adding that the Centre needed to increase the availability of jabs in the country. He also posed four suggestions to the Centre to do this. First, that the government should order all companies to make vaccines as Bharat Biotech has agreed to share Covaxin's formula with other firms; second, buy COVID-19 vaccines from foreign countries within 24 hours and distribute these among states; third, allow foreign companies to produce vaccines in India; and fourth, request countries which have stored doses to give those vaccines to India.
The CM also said that in the last 24 hours, Delhi had recorded approximately 2,200 fresh COVID cases and the positivity rate had fallen below 3.5 percent.
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