New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday appealed to the central government to open the vaccination drive for children below the age of 18 years amid fears over a possible third wave of COVID-19 in the country.
Addressing a virtual press conference, Kejriwal also urged the Centre to provide more vaccines to Delhi, saying his government can vaccinate the entire national capital in three months if he gets nearly 85 lakh doses a month.
"We're especially worried about children because they can't be vaccinated now. I appeal to experts and the central government to bring vaccines for children as soon as possible. We have 5 to 6 days of vaccine left in Delhi, vaccination is going on in full swing," Kejriwal was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
"If we get adequate vaccine doses, we can complete vaccination within 3 months. There're 1.5 crore people above 18 years of age in Delhi so we need 3 crore doses. Out of this, Delhi government has got only 40 lakh doses so far. We need 2.6 crores more doses," he added.
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This is not the first time when Kejriwal has appealed to the Centre to inoculate children below 18 years of age. Last month, the Delhi Chief Minister had said that the age restriction on the vaccination drive should be removed completely if "vaccines are safe and effective".
Meanwhile, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday said that around 1.84 lakh people in the 18-44 age group have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine since the inoculation of this category started on May 3.
According to Delhi government's health bulletin, 1,14,657 beneficiaries were vaccinated in the last 24 hours, of which 80,306 received their first dose.
"In Delhi 1.84 lakh youth have got the 1st dose of vaccine, in first 4 days of 18-45 yrs age group opening. In total 38.88 lakh people have got the vaccine in all age groups till yesterday evening," Sisodia tweeted.
On the other hand, the total number of coronavirus cases in the national capital stands at 12,92,867 while 18,739 fatalities have been reported till now.