COVID-19: Vaccination for 18-44 age group halted in Delhi due to vaccine shortage, says Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said that vaccination for the 18-44 age group has been halted in Delhi from today. Kejriwal said that the vaccine stock for this category has been consumed. Due to this, their vaccination centres have been shut. 

The Chief Minister informed that only a few vaccines are available at some centres which will be administered today. Kejriwal urged the Centre to increase the quota of COVID-19 vaccine for the national capital as it faces a huge crunch of the shots.

Reiterating his appeal, he requested the Centre to import COVID-19 vaccines at a national level instead of leaving it to the states to raise global tenders. The chief minister also made four appeals to the Centre to boost vaccine availability in the country.

Vaccination for the 18+ category halted in Delhi from today. Vaccine stock for this category has been consumed. Due to this, their vaccination centres have been shut. Only a few vaccines are available at some centres which will be administered today: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal pic.twitter.com/rC96M5ZvS6

— ANI (@ANI) May 22, 2021

CM Kejriwal further said that Delhi requires 80 lakh vaccine doses per month. "However, we only received 16 lakh vaccine doses for May." He also said that the quota of vaccines for the national capital has further been reduced, and referred to a letter from the Centre that only 8 lakh vaccine doses will be supplied for June.

If the city gets 8 lakh doses every month, it will take at least 30 months to vaccinate the entire city, his letter read.

India has so far administered more than 19.33 crore vaccine doses through over 2.7 million sessions across the country, according to the Health Ministry.