Kovidshield is a Covid vaccine made in India by Serum Institute (File)
Thiruvananthapuram:
The Kerala High Court has set aside its September order directing the Center to allow a second dose of Kovishield (for eligible people) after a gap of four weeks instead of the currently mandated 84 days.
The court reversed its earlier ruling, saying that vaccination (and dosage interval) is part of the policy decisions taken by the central government, and it cannot interfere with this space.
Passed by a single-judge bench, the earlier order held that a person had covered the COVID vaccination campaign”Right to choose between early protection and better security,
Basically, the minimum interval between two Covishield doses remains at 84 days, or 12 weeks.
A few days later, the Center appealed against its order in the order of the High Court, saying that if the decision is not set aside, then it will be wrong.Entire country’s vaccination policy will derail,
The recommended (minimum) interval between two doses of CoveShield (India’s version of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine) was four to six weeks when vaccination began in January.
Later it was increased to six to eight weeks and in May it was again increased to 12 to 16 weeks. The argument of the Center at that time was “Real life evidence from the UK” about vaccine effectiveness,
The gap for Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin remains unchanged.
The earlier order, which directed the Center to modify the CoWIN app to allow less lag, was after a petition by two clothing companies with a combined 10,000+ employees.
The companies said they bought vaccines for their workers and their families (without waiting for the government) for Rs 52.3 lakh but were unable to proceed with the second dose due to the need to register the jabs on CoWIN. The companies also reported that the center had relaxed dosage intervals for some groups and offered “privileges” to government officials.
This was at a time when Kerala was grappling with a surge in cases, with the state government reporting around 30,000 new cases daily. Since then, fortunately, there has been a steady decline; Today the southern state recorded around 5,000 new cases in the last 24 hours.
The decision to extend the Kovidshield dosing interval had raised eyebrows, with many linking it to a severe shortage of vaccines while the second Covid wave was at its peak.
Then some members of the Covid Task Force suggested that the decision was not unanimous.
Since then the vaccine supply has increased significantly and vaccination rates have also improved, with the Center launching a door-to-door vaccination programme.
Yesterday, Union Health Secretary Lav Agarwal said that over 125 crore doses have been administered so far and about 38 per cent of India’s adult population has received both the jobs.
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