Madras HC expresses grievance over vaccines allocation for Tamil Nadu

Disappointed with the Centre's decision to allocate less number of vaccines doses to Tamil Nadu, the judges advised the government to reconsider the allocation to the states as they could not procure vaccine directly from the manufacturers.

Chennai:The Madras High Court on Monday expressed grievance over the Central government allocating less number of Covid vaccines to Tamil Nadu.

The observations were made by the bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy while hearing a matter taken up on its own, regarding COVID-19 management in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring Puducherry.

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During the hearing, Tamil Nadu Health Secretary informed that the number of Covid infections have witnessed a sharp decline while the state has reported the lowest number of Covid deaths in India.

"Learned Additional Solicitor General informs the Court that as per the plan put in place by the Centre, 216 crore doses of vaccine should be available by the end of the year for every Indian to be fully vaccinated," the bench said.

However, "the future allocation of vaccines for Tamil Nadu appears to be somewhat disappointing," the bench added.

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"Though the Centre maintains that the allocation is based on the population of a State, the positivity rate prevailing in such state and like objective factors, the allocation to Tamil Nadu, as indicated in the Centre's affidavit, may require to be revisited."

"However, there is hope that vaccines would be available in greater numbers upon the various manufacturing units augmenting their production facilities," the judges said.

(with agency inputs)

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