India not fully utlising COVID-19 vaccine: Delhi High Court

NEW DELHI: Expressing apprehensions over non-utilisation of COVID-19 vaccines to its full capacity, the Delhi High Court on Thursday, March 4, directed Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India (SII) to disclose their capacity to manufacture Covaxin and Covishield vaccines respectively. A bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Rekha Palli noted that India is either donating vaccines to the foreign countries, or is selling it to them and nor is it vaccinating its own people. According to the bench, the nation is not utilizing COVID-19 vaccine fully, and there is need for that sense of responsibility and urgency.

The Delhi High Court directed Bharat Biotech and SII to file separate affidavits by March 9, stating their capacity to manufacture the vaccines on per day/week/month basis. The organisations will also have to mention the current optic of the vaccines and the quantity of unused vaccine capacity lying. These manufacturers of vaccine have also been asked to mention if they can scale up their production capacities.

The Court also asked the Union of India (UoI) to explain the rationale behind keeping strict control over class of persons who can be vaccinated. The Bench asked the UoI to disclose India’s capacity to transport the vaccines while maintaining the whole chain particularly to the National Capital Territory of Delhi, along with the indication of the extent to which it is presently being used.

In addition, the court directed the Government of Delhi to carry out inspections of medical facilities available in court complexes and to report if COVID-19 vaccination centres could be set up there to deal with the shortcomings in the facilities. 

The Delhi High Court on Thursday was hearing a public interest litigation to examine the demand of the Bar Council of Delhi, which is to declare all people associated with the judicial functioning, including lawyers, judges and court staff as ‘frontline workers’ so that they can be administered with COVID-19 vaccine on priority basis, without limitations based on their age or physical condition.