8.4 Lakh Covishield, 3.2 Lakh Covaxin Doses For July Yet To Be Received From Centre : Karnataka Govt Tells High Court

A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar in their order said "State will have to place before the court whether any timeline has been fixed for ensuring that the entire population of the state gets vaccinated. The State government shall respond on this aspect on the next date of hearing."

Additional Advocate General Dhyan Chinnappa placed on record details of vaccine doses of Covishield and Covaxin which are expected to be received by the state government and submitted that the same will take care of those beneficiaries whose second doses are due in the month of July-August.

The written submission stated that a total of 8,46,360 government quota doses of Covishield for the month of July are yet to be received. The central government has allocated a total of 42,60,350 doses of Covishield for the month of August for the state.

Similarly, in regards to Covaxin,  a total of 3,22,700 government quota doses for the month of July are yet to be received and a total of 6,12,380 doses are allocated for the month of August. Chinnappa also informed the court that the state government has received 18,52,880 additional doses of Covishiled and Covaxin from the central government for the month of July.

Advocate G R Mohan, appearing for one of the petitioners, pointed to the court about colleges having been started from July 26 in the state. He urged the court to ensure that the state undertakes a special drive to vaccinate all students above 18 years of age who are attending offline college now. To which the court directed the state government to place on record whether any special drive is being conducted to ensure that college students are vaccinated.

Advocate Shridhar Prabhu pointed to the court that some patients who were admitted to private hospital under the government quota have been charged by the hospital and there should be a grievance redressal mechanism setup to address their problems. Accordingly, the court directed, "It will be appropriate if the state government sets up a grievance redressal mechanism for the claims of the reimbursement of the amounts charged by the hospitals. State to set up such a mechanism at the earliest."

The matters will be next heard on August 10.