How Can State Government Deviate From Vaccination Schedule Set By Centre? Court Asks Kerala Government

The questions from Justice PB Suresh Kumar came while hearing a plea by Kitex Garments Ltd seeking permission to administer the second dose of COVISHIELD vaccine to its workers.

How did the Kerala government deviate from the vaccination schedule set by the central government and what was the reason for the Centre to increase the gap between first and second dose of COVISHIELD from 4 weeks to 12-16 weeks? These were the queries posed by the Kerala High Court to the Union Health Ministry and the state government on Thursday. The questions from Justice PB Suresh Kumar came while hearing a plea by Kitex Garments Ltd seeking permission to administer the second dose of COVISHIELD vaccine to its workers. The court asked the state government how it could relax the prevailing protocol, which mandates a gap of 12-16 weeks between the 1st and 2nd jabs, for people going abroad when it was citing the instructions as "gospel truth" in all its circulars or notifications.