New Delhi, May 11: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday urged the Centre increase production of COVID-19 vaccine. Arvind Kejriwal appealed to the Centre to share coronavirus vaccine formula with more companies so that they could manufacture COVID-19 vaccine safely to overcome the shortage. Kejriwal has also reportedly written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard. During a press conference, the Delhi CM said that the central government should begin the production of the vaccine on a war footing.

"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," reported NDTV quoting Kejriwal as saying.

The Delhi CM further added that the Centre should collect the formula to produce vaccines from Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech. & give it to all those companies that can produce vaccines safely.  As per Kejriwal, the Delhi government is administering 1.25 lakh doses every day and in coming days it will administer three lakh doses daily. Delhi Lockdown Effective, COVID-19 Dipping Gradually in National Capital and No Shortage of ICU Beds, Says CM Arvind Kejriwal.

Kejriwal, press conference, said daily COVID-19 cases in Delhi had decreased in the past two days. He claimed that there is no dearth of ICU beds in the hospitals. Notably, the daily positivity rate of COVID-19 in the national capital has also come down to below 20 percent. It was reported at 19.10 percent on May 10. Delhi had reported over 28,000 new cases in a day on April 21, the highest daily positive cases since the pandemic began early last year.

The state administration said that another 500-bed COVID-19 care centre with ICU and Oxygen facility had been established at Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) hospital and 400 bed COVID-19 care centre was set up by Gurudwara Rakab Ganj which was attached with LNJP hospital on Monday. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal Asks Centre to Share COVID-19 Vaccine Formula with Other Companies to Scale Up Production.

"Lockdown has been successful as the number of daily cases has reduced in the last few days. Vaccination is in full swing, and we have set a target to vaccinate all citizens of the national capital within next three months," Kejriwal said while addressing a digital press conference on Tuesday.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 11, 2021 03:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).