Shivani Pandey –
Published on August 05, 2021, at 01:10 PM
The Kerala High Court issued notice on a plea seeking administration of the third dose of an Internationally recognized vaccine for NRIs who had already received two doses of Covaxin, which is not globally accepted for international travel.
Advocate Manas P Hameed appearing on behalf of the Petitioner stated that the Petitioner a Non- Resident Indian works in Saudi Arabia and had returned to India in January 2021 due to the second wave of the pandemic in Saudi. During his stay in India, he received two doses of Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech International Ltd.
However, The Saudi Arabia government only recognizes Covisheild equivalent to AstraZeneca.
The Petitioner pleaded that he would not have taken Covaxin if the authorities had given prior notice to the public about the non-recognition of Covaxin by the World Health Organization and other countries. The lack of such disclosure has proven to imperil International travellers who work abroad, the plea alleged.
The Petitioner alleged that India had not yet come up with a solution for the International travel of its NRI citizens who had already taken Covaxin.
This inaction on part of the respondents was alleged to be unfair and liable to cause serious consequences to him.
It was prayed that a direction may be issued to the respondents to inform the public regarding the non-approval of Covaxin by the WHO and other Countries.
Also read: US National Institute of Health: Covaxin effective against Alpha, Delta Variants