Covid-19 jabs for 18-44 age group to be shut from today: CM Kejriwal

Kejriwal reiterated that Delhi needs around 8 million doses per month to vaccinate all adults in the next three months.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday appealed to the central government to increase the Capital’s allocation of vaccines against the coronavirus disease, saying that the city was running out of stocks and that inoculations of younger adults in the 18-44 age group were to grind to a halt at government-run centres by Sunday.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal during a press conference, in New Delhi, India on Saturday, May 22, 2021. (HT PHOTO)

Delhi received 1.6 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines this month, and its allocation for June has been halved to around 800,000, the chief minister said, adding that at this rate, it will take the city 30 months – or two-and-a-half years – to inoculate its entire adult population of around 15 million adults.

Kejriwal reiterated that Delhi needs around 8 million doses per month to vaccinate all adults in the next three months.

“Delhi needs 80 lakh vaccine doses every month. In comparison to this, the central government allocated 16 lakh doses to Delhi in May. The same has been slashed to 8 lakh doses for next month (June). At this pace, it will take 30 months to vaccinate all adults in Delhi. Till then, no one knows how many waves and deaths due to Covid-19 will we have to see. We need 2.5 crore (25 million) more doses to vaccinate the rest of the adults in Delhi,” he said at an online press briefing.

Kejriwal also said that on Saturday, most government-run vaccination centres will run out of doses to administer to those below the age of 45.

Only 31 government-run vaccination centres for younger adults were functional on Saturday, compared to the around 200 that were open earlier this week. According to the government’s records, no fresh stocks are expected for the rest of this month.

“Vaccines for the 18-44 age group have finished because of which centres for the youth are being closed from today. Few doses of the vaccine are left in some centres, but these also will get over by today evening. From tomorrow (Sunday), all centres for the youth will shut down. We have also written to the central government asking for more vaccines,” Kejriwal said.

To be sure, centres by private hospitals are still open for inoculating younger adults through doses they acquired directly from vaccine makers. Senior officials of private hospitals -- Indraprastha Apollo, Max group and Sir Ganga Ram Hospital -- told HT on Saturday that they have sufficient stock for the below-45 category as of now. They did not give further details. Additionally, the Capital also has doses for people aged 45 and above.

Hours after Kejriwal’s statement, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday hit out at the Aam Aadmi Party leader for “indulging in politics” over the issue of vaccination and said the chief minister should stop making “excuses”.

Union minister and BJP leader Prakash Javadekar said the Centre has provided millions of doses to Delhi so far and will continue to do so. “Delhi chief minister constantly does politics in the name of Delhi... Even during the time of oxygen (crisis), he kept saying ‘oxygen, oxygen’ and then later said Delhi has surplus oxygen. Kejriwal should stop making excuses,” Javadekar said in a statement.

The minister was referring to the nearly three-week-long crisis starting April 22 that saw hospitals across the city make several distress calls as they ran low on medical oxygen needed to treat Covid-19 patients. Both the Centre and the Delhi government were criticised by courts on reacting late to the emergency, which claimed the lives of dozens of Covid-19 patients on oxygen support.

Earlier this month, the central government said state governments are allowed to altogether procure 20 million doses directly from manufacturers this month to vaccinate younger adults in the 18-44 age group. Of this figure, the Centre has finalised a fixed quota for each state based on the population of younger adults, a move it says is meant to ensure equity in supplies.

So far, about 26% (3,885,425) of the city’s adult population has received at least one dose, although the recipients are likely to include people from the neighbouring NCR towns of Noida, Ghaziabad, and Gurugram. Only 7.5% (1,132,154) is fully vaccinated with both the doses.

Kejriwal on Saturday also said he wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and suggested four ways for the Centre to increase vaccine supply at a time when the country’s inoculation drive is struggling to pick up pace despite the urgency necessitated by the deadly second wave of infections.

Underscoring the need to inoculate entire populations to wrest control from the virus, Kejriwal said the Centre should direct companies in India within 24 hours to start manufacturing Covaxin, the vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech. The firm said earlier in May it is prepared to share details of its technology and production process with other manufacturers to boost supply.

The Centre should also approve foreign-made vaccines within 24 hours, and negotiate with international vaccine makers instead of leaving it to the state governments to individually procure doses, he said.

“The 36 states and union territories of India are fighting among themselves in front of the (foreign) companies. What image is this projecting of India? The government of India should buy vaccines from them and distribute it among the states,” he stressed.

Under the existing norms, the Centre procures 50% of the vaccines produced, while the remaining 50% is to be purchased by the states and private hospitals. Several states, including Delhi and Maharashtra, have said they are reaching out to foreign companies to get additional stocks.

The CM’s remaining suggestions included requesting countries that have additional vaccine doses to give them away, and permitting international vaccine makers to manufacture shots in India.

“We are arranging beds, oxygen and medicines, but vaccine is the most effective weapon of protection against the fatal virus,” Kejriwal said.

“This period (when the Covid-19 outbreak is receding) has to be utilised to give at least the first dose of the vaccine to as many people as possible. It looks like the number of doses available will go up from July... after that there is a need for aggressive vaccination. That is the only hope for preventing another surge,” said Dr Amit Singh, associate professor at Indian Institute of Science-Bengaluru.

The Union government has said it is trying to help manufacturers increase production and that India will have obtained around 2 billion doses -- which will be sufficient to vaccinate most adults -- by the end of the year.