Delhi Chief Minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal has urged vaccine makers Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech to increase their supplies to Delhi, in a letter to Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan.
In it, the CM says when putting both groups i.e., 18-44-year-olds and 45+, the national capital will require 83 lakh doses per month to vaccinate the population in the next three months.
"We have already developed the infrastructure required," he says, adding that currently, they are vaccinating roughly 1 lakh people per day.
CM Kejriwal also said that the government has placed orders with Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute, and has also approached Reddy Labs for Sputnik vaccines.
According to the CM, Delhi has currently vaccinated 2.99 lakh doses in the 18-44 age bracket. Since the third wave is steadily approaching, the goal is to administer vaccines to this group in the next three months, he said.
"To complete it in three months we would need around 23 lakh doses a month from the Government of India (GOI) channel during the three months of May to July, 2021," he said, adding that Delhi currently has a population of 92 lakh within the 18-44 age group.
As per Kejriwal, they have received 50 lakh doses thus far.
The Chief Minister also called for uniform prices in vaccination.
"The inherent fallacy and danger in the current differential pricing mechanism is that there is an obvious incentive for private manufacturers to prioritise supplies to private hospitals over supplies being made to governments," Kejriwal said.
This is because under the current mechanism they would will earn more from the private establishments, he explained.
Kejriwal also said that there should be active monitoring on these private establishments involved in the making of this vaccines. This is to ensure that adequate quantities are made available to all state governments.
Read the letter here:
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