"What if somebody doesn't get a slot on COWIN when they are due?" Delhi High Court questions Centre, Delhi govt

While acknowledging the active steps taken by the Centre and the Delhi government to procure an additional 40,000 vials of Covaxin pursuant to its order, the Delhi High Court on Monday also questioned them on a glaring loophole [Ashish Virmani vs. Government of NCT Delhi & Anr.]..Observing that many people were due for their second dose of Covaxin on June 14, the Court ordered that more vaccination slots be arranged on the COWIN app, failing which the whole exercise will be rendered futile..Advocate Anuj Aggarwal, appearing for the Delhi government, informed the Court that on May 23, government centres were ordered to administer only the second dose of Covaxin. The Delhi government used its powers under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 to direct private hospitals to do the same.Additionally, it had also procured 40,000 additional vials of Covaxin. With judicial intervention, the governments have also been more proactive and vigilant, he added..He further submitted that both he and advocate Anurag Ahluwalia, standing counsel for the Centre, had used their good offices to ensure that these steps were taken towards the Court's order on June 4..When will Covaxin second dose be administered to age group 18 to 44 years? Delhi High Court asks Delhi govt .The submissions were made during the hearing of a petition highlighting the shortage of vaccines that arose in the capital during the administration of the second dose of Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin to the 18-44 age group..Advocate Pallav Mongia, appearing for the petitioner, stated that slots on COWIN are difficult to come by, citing his own example where he had to wait for three hours. He also likened it to a system of lottery and told the Single Judge Bench of Justice Rekha Palli that this game of life should not be reduced to a mere game of chance. Advocate Deepak Parashar, who was also appearing for one of the petitioners, concurred stating that between May 31 and June 7, many people became due for their second dose of Covaxin. If they didn't qualify in this "lottery system", they would miss their final deadlines, he pointed out..Justice Rekha Palli agreed with this submission and added,"He's right! What if somebody doesn't get a slot when they are due? Two weeks have gone by and now there's barely a week left for the deadline. Some people are due on June 14. What if they don't get it by then?"The Delhi government responded that it did not manage the COWIN portal. The Court said that they must find a way regardless..Finally the Delhi High Court ordered, "Pursuant to the last order both Petitioners have taken active steps. Government of NCT Delhi (GNCTD) has issued directions for the age group of 18-44 saying that all government vaccination centres and private hospitals will now administer only the second dose of Covaxin for this age group. It has further been said that the Delhi Government has received 40,000 additional doses to tide over this issue.However a small issue has been raised that no Covaxin doses were available between May 25 to June 6, 2021 and a number of people between ages 18-44 will complete the deadline of second dose on June 14, 2021. Missing this deadline will deem the entire exercise futile. ".The Court granted counsel appearing for both government one week's time to obtain clear instructions and also to examine whether the number of slots made available for the second dose to the said age group can be increased. .The matter will be heard next on June 11.