The Supreme Court has asked all states and Union Territories to file affidavits confirming or denying that they will be providing COVID-19 vaccinations free of cost as per an affidavit submitted by the Central Government.
The top court has also told the Centre to provide data on a slew of issues related to the inoculation process as well as purchase history of vaccines, including total vaccines ordered so far, date of such orders, and the future supply expected along with the expected date of delivery.
While the court had passed the order on Monday (31 May) while hearing a suo motu case to deal with issues relating to COVID-19 management in the country, it was published on the Supreme Court website on Wednesday.
On 9 May, the Centre had said in an affidavit that all states and Union Territories will provide free vaccinations. Responding to this, a bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud said, "It is important that individual state/UT governments confirm/deny this position before the court. Further, if they have decided to vaccinate their population for free, then, as a matter of principle, it is important that this policy is annexed to their affidavit so that the population within their territories can be assured of their right..."
Provide purchase history of vaccines, court tells Centre
The court has also asked the Central government to furnish complete data on the government’s purchase history of all the COVID-19 vaccines till date including Covaxin, Covishield and Sputnik V, as noted by Bar & Bench.
FOLLOW LIVE UPDATES ON CORONAVIRUS HERE
The bench has asked the Centre to state the dates of all procurement orders placed by the Central government for all three vaccines, the quantity of vaccines ordered as on each date; and the projected date of supply.
The Union government has also been asked to provide data on the percentage of population that has been vaccinated with one dose and both doses, as against eligible persons in the first three phases of the vaccination drive.
Further, the Supreme Court has told the Centre to give an outline for how and when it seeks to vaccinate the remaining population in phases 1, 2 and 3.
During the hearing on Monday, the court had questioned the differential pricing of vaccines for the Centre and states.
"The Centre says it gets a low price since it buys in bulk. If this is the rationale, then why do states have to pay a higher price? There needs to be one price for vaccines across the nation. The pandemic has evolved in the last two months," Justice Chandrachud had orally observed.
from Firstpost India Latest News https://ift.tt/3cbjzBA
No comments:
Post a Comment