On Saturday, 22 May 2021, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal 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.
To inoculate the capital’s entire population, Delhi needs 80 lakh COVID-19 vaccine doses a month, said CM Kejriwal. However, he claimed that Delhi had received 16 lakh doses in May and would get 8 lakh in June, as per a letter from the Centre.
- 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.
- 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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