Kejriwal urges PM to do away with vaccination age limit

With Delhi grappling with an unprecedented rise in Covid-19 cases, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to help expedite the inoculation drive in the national capital. Underlining that the entire thrust of the Delhi government is on the vaccination programme, Kejriwal called upon PM Modi for relaxation in setting up new vaccination centers and removal of age limit of vaccination. 

“The renewed wave of coronavirus has introduced new concerns and challenges across the country. We have to expedite the vaccination campaign rapidly. The rules for opening new centers must be simplified and everyone should be allowed to vaccinate. If it goes like this, then the Delhi government can vaccinate all Delhiites in three months,” Kejriwal wrote in the letter. 

The Aam Aadmi Party has been blaming the Central government that the way it is running the vaccination programme, it will take no less than 15 years for the entire nation to get jabs.

“Modiji’s government is exporting the corona vaccine abroad, while there is shortage in our own country itself. 46.5 million doses have been exported to 84 countries. The Prime Minister has done all this to brighten his image. Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Angola, Kenya, Senegal, Sudan, Tajikistan, Zimbabwe, Nigeria countries are being given priority, while saving the lives of the people of their country is not considered necessary,’’ senior AAP leader Raghav Chadda said in a press briefing.

Asserting that India’s vaccination is too slow compared to other nations, Chadda said India is the only country in the world which has not vaccinated its people as much as it has exported to other countries.

Simultaneously, the Delhi government has started a 24-hour vaccination drive to give impetus to the vaccination programme in the national capital. From Tuesday (6 April) onwards, one-third of Delhi government vaccination centers will operate daily from 9 pm to 9 am, making the inoculation drive going on round-the-clock. So far, vaccines were administered from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm only. According to government data, approximately, 70,000 eligible people are getting jabs in Delhi every day.