Consider Karnataka's Request For 30 Lakh Vaccine Doses Per Week : High Court To Centre

A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar said "We have perused the written statement filed by the state government. The figures set out above indicate that the state government may face shortage of doses of Covishield for vaccinating those beneficiaries whose second dose is due in July and August. There are 60,87,961 beneficiaries whose second dose is due in the months July -August."

Further it said "By August 4 the state government will get a total of 41,35,750 doses. Many of the said doses will go to those who are taking the first doses. Even figures of Covaxin indicate that the state may not be able to give a second dose to all beneficiaries whose dose is due in July-Aug."

It added "State relying upon annexure R-2 which is a representation made by it on July 13, requesting for release of minimum 30 lakhs vaccine doses per week. We are sure that the Government of India will consider the said representation in the light of the fact that in July-August state may face shortage of vaccine of both categories for administering the second dose".

In the letter written by the state government to the Government of India, it is mentioned that Karnataka with an estimated target of 4.97 crore eligible beneficiaries aged above 18 years have covered 2.1 crore beneficiaries with first dose and 4.78 lakh beneficiaries with second dose. Till now state has received 2.25 crore (including state procured) doses of covid-19 vaccines out of which 1.97 crore doses are of Covishiled and 27.95 lakh doses are of Covaxin.

"Considering State's capacity to vaccinate 5 lakh beneficiaries per day we request you (GoI) to kindly release minimum 30 lakh vaccine doses per week for us to cover all target beneficiaries with both doses in the shortest possible time", the bench told the Union's counsel.

The state government also informed the court that 11, 267 covid vaccine centers are in rural areas of the state and 6,519 in urban areas. The percentage of vaccines administered to the rural population is 49 percent.

Further it was told that as regards vaccine for frontline workers necessary communication has been issued to include family members of police personnel in the state identified priority groups for Covid-19 vaccination and the same is being implemented. Accordingly, 19,526 family members of police personnel have already been vaccinated.

The court which is hearing a batch of petition regarding covid-19 management in the state will continue to hear the matter on July 28.