HC notices to Centre, Delhi govt on plea to ensure administration of second vaccine dose within stipulated time

New Delhi [India], June 2 : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Centre and Delhi government on a plea seeking to direct authorities concerned to ensure the administration of the second dosage of COVID-19 vaccine to the eligible persons within the recommended period recommended by the COVID Working Group.
Justice Rekha Palli asked the Centre and Delhi government to file a reply on the petition filed by Rajeev Parashar through advocates Amrish Kumar Tyagi, Deepak Parashar, Himanshu Shukla, and Prakhar Singh.
The court listed the matter for further hearing on June 4.
The petitioner also sought direction to the Delhi government to commence and carry out administration of second doses of COVAXIN to the eligible persons of age group of 18 or above within the recommended interval of four to six weeks from the administration of first dose as per the recommendation of COVID Working Group.
The petitioner told the court that his petition arose out of the reports published in various newspapers dated May 30 that the Delhi government had suspended the vaccination drive since May 24 for the persons falling in the age group of 18-44 years due to unavailability of vaccines.
According to the recommendations of the COVID Working Group of National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC), two doses of the vaccines have to be administered to the individuals and the time gap prescribed between the first and the second dosage for Covishield vaccine initially was four to six weeks which was increased to six to eight weeks in March, and recently on May 13, it has been increased to 12-16 weeks.
At the same time, the recommendation for COVAXIN's second dose has been same throughout this period at four to six weeks from the first dose.