Can vaccinate entire Delhi in 3 months, if Centre relaxes vaccine parameters: Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said that the people of the national capital could be vaccinated in three months if the Centre relaxes some parameters of vaccination.

"There is a surge in COVID-19 cases in the national capital. There was a time when the daily COVID-19 cases were retrained to 100-125. Yesterday Delhi recorded more than 500 cases," Kejriwal told .

Appealing to people to get themselves vaccinated, the Delhi CM said, "I appeal to everyone, who is eligible, to get themselves vaccinated. 30,000-40,000 vaccines are being administered per day, as of now. We will increase this to 1.25 lakh vaccines per day. In the next few days, we are increasing our capacity."

"Vaccination is being done in about 500 centres in Delhi, it will be doubled to 1000. Especially in government centres, vaccination is being done from 9 am to 5 pm. Now the hours are being increased from 9 am to 9 pm so that more and more people can be vaccinated," he said.

Kejriwal further said, "I appeal to Centre that their current guidelines for vaccination centres is very stringent. We now have two months of experience in vaccination. So we are writing to the Centre to relax some parameters so that vaccination can be done at more centres. We will take all precautions."

"Instead of making a list as to who all are eligible for vaccination, we should make a list as to who all are ineligible. Vaccination must be permitted for everyone else. There should be a walk-in," he said.

"If government relax parameters of vaccination, the entire Delhi can be vaccinated in three months," he added.

Delhi reported 536 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, as per a statement issued by the health department on Wednesday.

This was the highest number of cases since January 1 this year.

The death toll in the city has gone up to 10,948.

( With inputs from ANI )