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Delhi CM Kejriwal seeks Centre's nod to extend vaccination drive beyond health facilities, include all above 18
Speaking on Centre's claim that there was less vaccination of healthcare workers in Delhi, Jain said, "We can also say that there was less vaccination at Centre's hospitals. This is not an issue, the issue is that we have to vaccinate more and more people soon."
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to open the vaccination drive to all above 18 years. He has also sought a nod to extend the drive beyond healthcare facilities and allow beneficiaries to get the jab at temporary camp settings, news agency ANI reported quoting state health minister Satyendra Jain. The chief minister made the requests in a written letter to the Prime Minister which comes ahead of a meeting of all chief ministers of states and Union territories. The meeting will be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Covid-19 situation in the country and the vaccination strategy will be discussed.
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The meeting will be held via video conferencing at 6.30pm.
Speaking on Centre's claim that there was less vaccination of healthcare workers in Delhi, Jain said, "We can also say that there was less vaccination at Centre's hospitals. This is not an issue, the issue is that we have to vaccinate more and more people soon." "We should fight Covid together," he also said, according to the ANI report.
"The vaccination drive is going well in Delhi," Jain also said, adding, "We received some vaccines yesterday. We have stock for 4-5 days. We have demanded more and we will get it," ANI reported.
On April 7, Manohar Agnani, additional secretary of the health ministry wrote to health officials of Punjab, Delhi and Haryana, asking them to undertake necessary corrective actions immediately for improving the Covid-19 vaccination drives in their state/UT.
India rolled out its vaccination drive on January 16. Since then, it has inoculated more than 88.3 million beneficiaries across the state. In the first phase, only health workers and frontline workers were allowed to get the Covid-19 jab. In the following phase, people above 60 years of age and people with comorbidities were allowed to be immunised.
Currently, the third phase of the vaccination drive is underway and people above the age of 45 years are being administered the vaccine.
