The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday appealed to the Central government to help expedite the supplies of Covid-19 vaccine for the 18-45 age group in Delhi, expressing concerns about people who have their second doses due and asserting that a potential third wave of Covid-19 can be stopped only by scaling up the vaccination drive.
“For the 18-45 age group, we have no vaccines available in the government-run centres. As per schedule, vaccines for this group are likely to arrive in another five days. It is a concerning situation because many people are scheduled to take their second doses now and several of them have travelled long distances to places, such as Meerut and Bulandshahr, to get vaccinated. We appeal to the Central government to scale up vaccine supply for Delhi,” said AAP legislator Atishi while reading the government’s vaccine bulletin in a live-streamed video briefing.
All the 368 vaccine centres of the Delhi government for the 18-45 group are suspended for more than two weeks now as they have run out of vaccine stock. The Delhi government gets vaccines directly from the central government for the 45+ age group. But for the 18-45 age group, they buy directly the vaccines from the manufacturers – Covishield from Serum Institute of India and Covaxin from Bharat Biotech. However, a formula applied by the central government automatically ends up imposing a cap on the supplies.
“For the 45+ age group, we currently have 584,000 total doses available. There is a shortage of Covaxin. So it is being used for only second doses. A third wave of Covid-19 can only be stopped by vaccinating more people. The central government should promote state-run vaccine centres, which offer vaccines for free. A large number of people cannot afford to pay to get their families vaccinated in private hospitals,” said Atishi.
{{/usCountry}}“For the 45+ age group, we currently have 584,000 total doses available. There is a shortage of Covaxin. So it is being used for only second doses. A third wave of Covid-19 can only be stopped by vaccinating more people. The central government should promote state-run vaccine centres, which offer vaccines for free. A large number of people cannot afford to pay to get their families vaccinated in private hospitals,” said Atishi.
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