Delhi government demands 45 lakh doses of vaccine for July

Aam Aadmi Party MLA Atishi said that the Delhi government has sought 45 lakh doses of the COVID vaccine from the Center in July to maintain the current vaccination rate of 1.5 lakh people per day. He said that the vaccination drive in Delhi has been expedited and for the last three days about 1.5 lakh doses are being given daily. Thus, Delhi will need at least 45 lakh vaccine doses in July.

He said, the Delhi government has written to the central government requesting it to provide enough vaccines for July. The increase in vaccine supply will help us vaccinate nearly 70 per cent of our population and achieve herd immunity in Delhi.

A total of 2,07,559 people were vaccinated in Delhi on Saturday, out of which over 1.5 lakh were given to people in the age group of 18-44. So far 73,29,652 people have been given vaccine doses in the national capital, out of which over 56 lakh people have received both the first and over 17 lakh people. There are about 7.06 lakh vaccine doses available in Delhi, of which 5.40 lakh are CovIShield and 1.6 lakh Covaxin.

Atishi said, “We were able to vaccinate more than 50 per cent of the population in the age group of 45 and above a long time ago, but immunization of youth started at a later stage and availability of vaccine was also an issue. So, the pace of vaccination was slow, but with the availability of vaccine stock and increased vaccination speed, we have been able to vaccinate 25 per cent of the youth population in Delhi.