All 400 vaccination centres for 18-44 age group are closed in Delhi, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia said on Monday. In an online briefing, Sisodia informed that centres administering Covaxin to the 45+ age group, healthcare workers and frontline workers too have been shut due to unavailability of jabs.
Stressing that vaccination is the need of the hour to protect people against the coronavirus, Sisodia said that the Centre should approve vaccines that are being administered to people in other countries.
"All 400 vaccination sites for 18-44 age group closed in Delhi," the deputy CM said. "It should not happen that by the time we get vaccines, the time comes that even the antibodies of those who have been vaccinated are finished and they will again require vaccination," he added.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal earlier on Saturday said that vaccination centres for those in the 18-44 age group have to be closed due to lack of doses, and wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for immediate supply of jabs and increasing the quota of the city.
Delhi requires 80 lakh doses a month to vaccinate people in three months. But it only received 16 lakh doses in May and the Centre has further decreased Delhi's quota in June to 8 lakh doses, Kejriwal said. So far 50 lakh people have been vaccinated in Delhi. Further, 2.5 crore more doses are required to vaccinate all adults in Delhi, he said.
"With this speed of 8 lakh doses per month, it will take 30 months to vaccinate all the adults alone. By then, no one knows how many waves will arrive and how many deaths will occur," Kejriwal said.
The chief minister extended four suggestions to the central government to enhance vaccine availability in the country. The central government should within 24 hours direct all capable companies in the country to start manufacturing Covaxin as Bharat Biotech has agreed to share its formula, he said.
- With PTI inputs
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