Delhi High Court comes down heavily on central govt over vaccine shortage even as India reports record deaths, says its officers are living in ‘ivory towers’ as they are oblivious to ground realities
Workers take a break from cremating Covid-19 victims, in New Delhi on Tuesday. PIC/PTI
Covid-19 has not spared even a single family and still central government’s officers are living in “ivory towers” oblivious of ground realities, observed the Delhi High Court which on Tuesday was of the view that manufacturing of Sputnik V vaccine in India is giving an opportunity to the nation staring at shortage of vaccines.
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A bench of Justices Manmohan and Navin Chawla said the collaboration of Panacea Biotec with Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) for manufacturing of Sputnik V vaccine should be seen as an opportunity to ensure its usage here and in such matters instructions are to be taken from the highest authorities that too within 30 minutes. “No one is applying its mind” when there is an opportunity for the government to get millions of vaccines and it should use this as a window, it added.
“Otherwise, deaths will continue. Every day you are castigated by each and every court and still you are not awake. “Which bureaucrat is giving you instructions. Does your officer not see so many deaths are taking place in the country and we are short of vaccines. God bless this country. Tell your officers it is an opportunity for you, don’t lose it,” the bench said.
The HC’s observations came while hearing a plea of Delhi-based Panacea Biotec seeking to modify a July 2020 order, by which the firm had undertaken not to prosecute further the execution proceedings instituted by them in relation to an arbitral award, running into crores of rupees, passed in its favour and against the Centre.
The firm, in its fresh plea, sought release of the arbitral award saying it needs funds at the earliest in the larger interest of humanity as it has already manufactured trial batches of Sputnik V in collaboration with RDIF and the process of manufacturing scale-up batches is on.
The HC issued notice to the Centre and asked it to examine the plea and file a reply within a week and listed it for hearing on May 31.
98% population still susceptible to Covid-19
According to the government data on Tuesday morning, India registered the highest-ever spike in daily Covid-19 deaths at 4,329. The downward trend in daily cases, however, continued with 2,63,533 new cases. The Centre on Tuesday also warned that 98 per cent of the population in India is still susceptible or vulnerable to the infection. The government said that of the total population in India, 1.8 per cent has been affected by Covid-19 so far and 98 per cent of the population is still susceptible or vulnerable to the infection.
Pfizer, Moderna vax effective against variants in India
The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines appear to protect against Covid variants B.1.617 and B.1.618 first identified in India, researchers have reported in a new pre-print paper, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, CNN reported. But more research is needed to determine just how effective the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are against those variants in the real world.
‘270 doctors died of Covid-19 in 2nd wave’
The Indian Medical Association on Tuesday said 270 doctors across India have died of Covid-19 in the second wave so far. The list includes former IMA president Dr K K Aggarwal, who died on Monday. In the first wave, 748 doctors had succumbed to the disease.
2,52,28,996
Total no. of coronavirus cases in India so far
2,78,719
Total no. of deaths due to the virus in India so far
33,53,765
Total no. of active cases in India
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