Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said this afternoon that his government can vaccinate the entire national capital in three months if he gets nearly 85 lakh doses a month.
About 1 lakh vaccine doses are being administered in the city every day presently, the Chief Minister said, and the daily figure needs to be increased to 3 lakh. “A lot of people from neighbouring cities – Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Sonipat, Gurgaon, Noida – are coming to Delhi to get their Covid shots because they’re liking the arrangements here. But we do not have enough vaccines. If we get doses in the right quantity, we can vaccinate the entire national capital in three months,” Mr Kejriwal said this afternoon in a televised press briefing.
Elaborating the math, he said, “There are about 1 crore people in the 18-44 age group; A total of 1.5 crore people are above 18 years of age. We need 2.6 crore vaccines in three months. Every month, we need about 80-85 lakh doses. I appeal to the centre to increase the number of doses for Delhi. Currently, vaccination is going on at 100 centres in Delhi. The number of centres will be increased to 250-300 by the Delhi government.”
Citing warnings of the third wave of coronavirus, Kejriwal said that vaccination is the only safeguard against the deadly virus. He also urged the Centre and the experts for finding alternatives to vaccinate children below 18 years of age.
Notably, the government, earlier this week had said that third wave of Covid is inevitable. However, yesterday, K VijayRaghavan, India’s top scientific officer state that there may not be a third wave of coronavirus in the country if strong measures are taken and effectively implemented at the state, district and city-level.
“If we take strong measures, the third wave may not happen in all places or indeed anywhere at all. It depends on much how effectively guidance is implemented at the local level in the states, districts and cities everywhere”, he stated at the health ministry’s briefing on Friday.
