Arvind Kejriwal urges Centre to enable more firms for production of Covid-19 vaccines

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said the Centre should divide the responsibility of producing vaccine for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) between more firms in order to meet the high demand.

Currently, the two vaccine makers in India are Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), which manufactures Covishield and Bharat Biotech, which produces indigenously developed Covaxin.

Kejriwal said that the national capital was going to ramp up its inoculation drive and will soon need more jabs as it plans to vaccinate over three lakh people daily.

Urging the Centre to intervene, the CM suggested that the formula to make vaccine doses should be shared with other firms capable of producing vaccines in a safe manner. The current vaccine manufacturers can be provided royalty for use of their formula by other companies, he added.

Delhi on Monday recorded 12,651 fresh Covid-19 cases and 319 new deaths, taking the total infection tally and toll to 13,362,18 and 19,663 respectively. According to the state health bulletin, as many as 66,234 tests were conducted in the Capital in 24 hours and 1,764 people were inoculated. With this, the total number of people vaccinated in Delhi till now went up to 38,774,00.