‘Whether 16 or 60, give it to those who want’: HC to Centre on vaccine wastage

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday expressed displeasure over the “huge wastage” of COVID-19 vaccines reported in several states, reported PTI. A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli told the Centre to give the vaccine to “those who want it.”

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The High Court was referring to news reports that 44 lakh out of 10 crore doses of COVID-19 were wasted from January 16 till April 11. 

“This is a huge wastage,” the court noted.

“Give it to those who want it. Whomsoever you can vaccinate, please vaccinate. Whether 16 year old or 60 year old, all need vaccination. The pandemic does not discriminate,” it told the Centre.

The court said young people are being affected more this time round, and lot of young lives have been lost.

It said if at the end of a day, a few shots are available in a vial, then it be given to someone whether they fall in the approved categories for vaccination or not.

The highest number of vaccine doses were in Tamil Nadu (12%), followed by Haryana (9.74%), Punjab (8.12%), Manipur (7.8%) and Telangana (7.55%).

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This came to light as several 

states have alleged vaccine shortage. These include Maharashtra, Telangana, Odisha, Rajasthan, Punjab, Telangana, West Bengal.