PremiumDelhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday wrote to the Union Health Ministry urging it to direct Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech to increase monthly supplies of COVID-19 vaccines to Delhi to 60 lakh doses for the next three months.
The chief minister also said that states should be allowed to develop separate apps or mechanism for vaccination.
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Premium Premium In a letter addressed to the health minister Harsh Vardhan, the chief minister said, I thank you for your guidance and you active support to Delhi government in rolling out the COVID-19 vaccination drive.
At the outset, I would like to mention that the well accepted and robust system of UIP as implemented in the past for diseases like polio may be continued. The Central Government should make available to state the requisite number of vaccines to enable vaccination of all citizens. Centre should actively monitor and supervise the manufacture of vaccines by the private parties so that the supplies in adequate numbers are made to all state governments and this crucial aspect is not left to the direction of private manufacturers, the letter said.
"An uniform price should be fixed for the vaccines for supplies made to the governments and private hospitals. The inherent fallacy and danger in the current differential pricing mechanism is that there is an obvious incentive for private manufacturers to prioritise supply to private hospitals..." it said.
The letter also said, "Delhi has a population of 2 crore, out of which 1.5 crore people are above the age of 18. Vaccinating all of them would mean 3 crore doses. We have received roughly 50 lakh doses so far. Therefore, we need additional 250 crore doses. ... As the third COVID wave is also anticipated soon, we want to complete vaccination of all people in Delhi with in 3 months... To complete it in 3 months, we would need 23 lakh doses per month from GOI channels ... during May to July."
I urge you to direct Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech to increase monthly supplies to Delhi to 60 lakh doses during May to July, the letter also added.
Meanwhile, Delhi vaccinated over 1.28 lakh people against coronavirus on Saturday, AAP MLA Atishi said on Sunday. She also said Delhi currently has 4.65 lakh doses of coronavirus vaccines available for those above 45, and healthcare and frontline workers, while 2.74 lakh doses are available for the 18-44 age category.
She further added, Delhi has so far received 5.5 lakh doses of coronavirus vaccines for the 18-44 category, and over 43 lakh doses for 45-plus, and healthcare and frontline workers.
Earlier this week, Kejriwal said that the entire population of Delhi can be vaccinated within three months, if adequate doses are available.
"As I had promised earlier, we can vaccinate the entire (population of) Delhi within three months if there's adequate supply. We will open up more centres if we get more doses in a timely manner," he said.
Kejriwal also urged all those aged above 18 to take the jabs compulsorily. "At the end of the day, one has to get vaccinated. Vaccination is the only solution to this problem," he said.
Delhi recorded 273 more COVID-19 fatalities and 13,336 new infections on Sunday, while the positivity rate remained below 25% for the fourth consecutive day, the Health Department said.
There are 86,232 active cases and over 12.17 lakh people have either recovered, migrated out or have been discharged, according to a health bulletin.
The infection tally rose to 13,23,567 after the national capital recorded 13,336 new cases in the last 24 hours. The positivity rate stood at 21.67%, lower than 23.34% a day ago.
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