In a press conference today, May 11, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, informed that the Delhi government has increased the number of oxygen beds in the past few days. “Y’day we started 500 new ICU beds near GTB Hospital. Now there’s no shortage of ICU & Oxygen beds in Delhi,” he said.

As per the latest data shared by the Delhi State Health Bulletin, of the total 22,667 hospital beds, 19,438 were occupied on May 10.

Kejriwal also acknowledged the decreasing daily COVID cases in the national capital. Yesterday, on May 10, Delhi recorded 12,651 new COVID cases. On May 9, over 13,000 new daily cases were reported.

“Corona cases are going down in Delhi, so is the second wave. With your cooperation lockdown was successful,” he said. The national capital has been under the lockdown since April 19 and it has been extended till May 17.

Also Read: COVID19 Update: With over 366,000 daily cases, India reports a slight drop in new infections

The Delhi Chief Minister stressed on ramping up vaccine production as the country was facing a big challenge in vaccine supply, he said.

“Only 2 companies are producing vaccines. They produce only 6-7 crore [60-70 million] vaccines a month. This way, it’ll take over 2 yrs to vaccinate everyone. Many waves would’ve come by then,” said Kejriwal, adding that Delhi is facing a shortage of vaccines.

He also stressed on the need to develop national policy to inoculate everyone in the next few months. The chief minister suggested several companies should be deployed to produce vaccines. “Centre should collect the formula to produce vaccines from these 2 companies & give it to all those companies that can produce vaccine safely. Centre has the power to do this in these difficult times,” he added.

Also Read: Ripple effect of COVID-19’s second wave in India being felt across the globe

Kejriwal also said that his government will soon start vaccinating over 300,000 people in a day. “Right now, we’re administering 1.25 lakh [125,000] doses every day. We’ll soon begin vaccinating over 3 lakh [300,000] people every day. We aim to vaccinate all residents of Delhi within next 3 months. But we’re facing vaccine shortage. We’re left with stock that will last only a few days,” he said. So far, 3.8 million beneficiaries have been administered COVID19 vaccine in Delhi.

Three days back on May 8, Kejriwal said to complete vaccination within three months, the government needs 26 million more doses.

Also Read: We can vaccinate Delhi in three months, if we get sufficient doses: CM Arvind Kejriwal