Arvind Kejriwal made the remarks at a press briefing today.

New Delhi:

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal this afternoon gave four suggestions to the central government on boosting vaccine production as he underlined the national capital has paused the vaccine for 18-44 age group due to shortage of doses.  “To protect the country from a third wave, it’s important to speed up the vaccination drive,” he stressed. 

“All the doses that were received from the centre have been used. A few doses were left, which will also be used by the evening. This makes me very sad. We have written to to centre about this… as soon as we get the vaccines, we will re-open the vaccination centres,” the Chief Minister said.

Delhi every month needs 80 lakh doses but it has received only 16 lakh doses in May, Mr Kejriwal said. “For June, our share has been reduced further to eight lakh doses, according to a letter we have received… So far, we have administered 50 lakh doses in the city. We need at least 2.5 crore total vaccines,” he underlined. 

If the city gets 8 lakh doses every month, it will take at least 30 months to vaccinate the entire city. “It’s hard to imagine how many more Covid waves will hit the city by then and how many more lives will be lost,” the Delhi Chief Minister insisted at a televised briefing. 

In his suggestions, Arvind Kejriwal said:

• All vaccine making companies in India should be ordered to manufacture the Bharat Biotech vaccine to ramp up stocks.
• The centre should speak to international vaccine manufacturers, buy from them and distribute to states.
• Some countries have stocked more vaccines than they need. The centre should request these nations to give the excess to India.
• Vaccine manufacturers should be given permission to manufacture in India.