Mr Kejriwal – whose government is squabbling with the centre over vaccine and oxygen availability – said supply could be increased if more firms could make vaccines
New Delhi:
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday urged the centre to share COVID-19 vaccine formulas and allow more companies to manufacture doses – of which there is an acute shortage as the Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech scramble to match demand.
At present, India has two vaccines and only two companies making them – Covishield (by the Serum Institute) and Covaxin (by Bharat Biotech) – and both have struggled to raise output. A third – Russia’s Sputnik V – has been cleared but not yet rolled out; this will be produced by five companies.
Mr Kejriwal – who has also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi with these suggestions – said supply could be increased if more firms were allowed to make the vaccines.
“Only two companies are producing vaccines. They produce only six to seven crore a month. This way, it will take over two years to vaccinate everyone… many waves will have come by then. It is important to increase vaccine production and frame a national plan,” Mr Kejriwal said.
“… several companies should be deployed to produce vaccines. Centre should collect the formula from these two and give it to the others so they can produce vaccines safely,” he added.
“The centre has the power to do this in these difficult times,” he stressed, writing to the PM, “every Indian should be vaccinated in the next few months and we are ready to play every role”.
“We’re administering 1.25 lakh doses every day. We’ll begin vaccinating over three lakh every day. We aim to vaccinate all residents within three months but we’re facing shortage,” the Chief Minister said.