New Delhi: The Delhi government issued an SOS call to the centre which stated that the national capital has enough Covaxin to last only for a day and Covishield enough to last for about four days.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain said, “There is only one day of Covaxin left in Delhi and only three to four days of Covishield. We need vaccines at the earliest.”
The shortage of vaccine in Delhi was flagged by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as well earlier citing that people from neighbouring areas like Noida, Gurugram etc. are also coming to Delhi to get the vaccination done.
The third phase of vaccination started on May 1, allowing everyone of age 18 and above to get the shot, with this, the Centre introduced a new vaccine policy. According to it, the states and private hospitals can buy vaccines directly from the makers.
The two main manufacturers of Covid vaccine, Bharat Biotech (Covaxin) and Serum Institute of India (Covishield) are to sell half of their produce of vaccine to the Centre at lower prices and the other half to private hospitals and states at relatively higher prices. However, the manufacturers say that it will take more time to make vaccine available for states and private hospitals directly.
Citing the need for the vaccine in the national capital, CM Kejriwal said, “We need 3 crore doses for 1.5 crore people.”
