VACCINE POLICY

ers to procure foreign vaccines for Covid-19.

The bench said that even municipal corporation like Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has received bids.

“Is this the policy of the central government that the state or municipal corporation can procure the vaccine or the Union government is going to procure for them like a nodal agency? We want clarity on this and rationale behind this policy,” the bench said.

The bench also called for a uniform pricing policy to be adopted for Covid-19 vaccines across the nation.

“Centre says it gets vaccines at low pricing since it buys in bulk, if this is the rationale then why do states have the higher price? There needs to be one price for the vaccines across the nation. Pandemic has evolved in last two months,” the court said.

“In this case, if the purpose is to procure vaccines then why should the Centre confine itself to only post-45 age group and leave pre-45 age entirely to state for arranging logistics. How do we look at the marginalised and economically weaker ones?”

The Supreme Court said that for the post-45 age group, supplying vaccines to states is from the Centre.

But for pre-45 group states have to make their own arrangements. “How do you justify this?” it asked.

In the meantime, the Centre said the entire eligible population would be vaccinated by the end of 2021 and moreover, the government is in talks with companies like Pfizer and if it succeeds then timeline for completing the vaccination would change, the law officer said.

Earlier, the top court had constituted a 12-member National Task Force to formulate a methodology for the scientific allocation of Oxygen to states and Union territories (UT) for saving lives of Covid patients and to facilitate a public health response to the pandemic.