KOCHI: The High Court on Tuesday orally asked the state government to inform it whether details of Covid vaccine stock could be updated on the official online platform to book a vaccination slot online.
The bench comprising Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan and Justice M R Anitha also orally observed that there must be transparency in the distribution of vaccines.
At the hearing, the government said the HC had taken suo motu cognisance of a similar issue and the Supreme Court was also considering the matter. The bench adjourned the case to Friday.
The court issued the directive while hearing a public interest litigation seeking a directive to disclose the available stock of vaccines and also a directive to the government to announce each week the supply calendar of vaccines for all health centres, vaccination centres and private hospitals in the state.
R Leela, the counsel for the petitioner, submitted that lack of information about the available number of doses had led to chaos and crowding at vaccination centres in the state.
In fact, the vaccine manufacturers’ refusal to disclose their production capacity had led to a lot of confusion among people. If manufactures did not disclose their actual production capacity, the possibility of duplicate vaccines entering the market and black marketing could not be ruled out, Leela said.
The petitioner submitted that the Centre, while announcing the vaccination schedule, had not announced the supply calendar of vaccine to each state.
The absence of details guaranteeing the supply and non-availability of vaccine is creating chaos and confusion among people. Hence, the petitioner sought a directive to the Centre to announce both a supply calendar of vaccines to each state and the number of vaccines available in the market.