The Kerala High Court on Thursday asked the Union government to inform about the total number of COVID-19 vaccines so far given to the State.
The court also asked the State government to file a statement regarding the number of vaccines received from the Centre.
The directive came on a public interest litigation seeking to bring the COVID-19 vaccines under the ambit of the National Vaccine Policy and Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) and follow the national vaccine policy norms.
The petition also sought a directive to the Centre to allocate sufficient funds for procuring the vaccines for the State to vaccinate its population in time-bound manner
The petitioner pointed out that the differential pricing for vaccine doses for the State governments and private players was directly in contravention of the “One Drug, One Price” practice followed till date in all successful immunisation campaigns.
The liberalised strategy of vaccination would effectively deny free vaccination to persons in the18-45 age group. The State governments had to bear the burden of bringing these age group within the ambit of free vaccination programme. As a result, persons in this age group would have to depend on their respective State governments or private hospitals to get themselves vaccinated.
The petition also sought a directive to the Centre to provide the vaccines free of cost to all age groups, including those between 18 and 44.
