Without inoculation, there is no escape from pandemic: Kerala HC
KOCHI: The High Court on Tuesday observed that unless the entire population is inoculated, there could be no escape from the pandemic. It said expediency should be in completing the task even if it is under considerable expenditure to the state.
A division bench comprising Justices K Vinod Chandran and M R Anitha issued the order on the petition seeking a direction to the Centre to follow the National Vaccine Policy and carry out procurement and distribution of available vaccines against Covid, free of cost for the entire population of the country.
As per the Centre’s statement, the combined monthly manufacture of the three vaccines – Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik-V – would be around 13.2 crore doses by July 2021. The projection can only mean that the entire population can be expected to be inoculated in another 10 months, which the country or the people can ill-afford. The court said there is also the problem of disparity between the haves and have-nots being further accentuated for the reason of the 50 per cent supplies being sourced in the open market, observed the court.