A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Supreme Court on Friday seeking COVID-19 vaccination for all above the age of 18 years because of a sudden upsurge in coronavirus cases across the country. The plea filed by advocate Rashmi Singh said that widespread vaccination of all young and working population is essential to arrest the deadly surge of the coronavirus in its second wave.
The petition stated that the administration of the vaccine in itself takes between six to eight weeks for both the doses and hence by the time the vaccine reaches the age group of 18 years and above, the COVID-19 virus would have spread rapidly and may give rise to a situation.
The denial of vaccines to those in the age bracket of 18-45 years is arbitrary, "discriminatory and unreasonable", said the plea, adding that such denial results in infringement of right to health and right to life. The petition highlighted that several experts, including the Indian Medical Association (IMA), have demanded the ramping up of COVID-19 vaccination and added that certain experts advised that India needs to administer at least 10 million doses daily to tackle the situation. The Central Government at present is making the vaccine available only to those above the age of 45 years.
India reported its highest-ever single-day spike in coronavirus cases with over 2.17 lakh new cases and more than 1,100 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry on Friday. In the last 24 hours, 1,185 COVID-related deaths reported in the country taking the death toll to 1,74,308. As many as 2,17,353 new COVID-19 cases have been reported in India in the last 24 hours. With this, the total number of cases has gone up to 1,42,91,917.
The active number of cases stands at 15,69,743. In the last 24 hours, 1,18,302 people recovered from the disease. With this, the total recoveries reached 1,25,47,866. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, 14,73,210 samples were tested on Thursday. And, as many as 26,34,76,625 samples have been tested across the country till April 15. Meanwhile, the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country stands at 11,72,23,509 till today.
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