Supreme Court refuses to play with lives of people by directing revaccination with Covishield

New-Delhi: The Supreme Court said that it cannot play with the lives of people by directing the Centre to revaccinate people with Covishield who are fully vaccinated with Covaxin to enable them to travel abroad during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hearing a petition that said that Covaxin was not approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and people here are facing difficulty in getting permission to travel abroad. The bench of justices DY Chandrachud and BV Nagarathna said that it cannot play with the lives of people as it doesn’t have any data to what will be the effect of such mixing of varied Covid-19 vaccines.

We have read in newspapers that Bharat Biotech has filed an application with the World Health Organisation for recognition. Let us wait for the response of WHO. We will take up this matter post-Diwali vacation,” the bench said.

Advocate Kartik Seth, appearing in person, argued that each day a number of people willing to go abroad are being denied entry to other countries as Covaxin is not recognised by the WHO. He pointed out under the present system, a person already vaccinated with Covaxin can not register himself or herself on the CoWIN portal for Covishield jabs, and a direction can be issued to the Centre in this regard.

“We cannot pass a direction to administer another vaccine without any data. We understand your concern but let’s wait for the WHO’s response,” the SC bench said.