Hearing the suo moto public interest petition, in which the issues regarding the handling of coronavirus in the state of Tripura is being examined, the High Court of Tripura on May 31st 2021 Monday, ordered the state government to provide the fullest assistance to such populace who may not have easy access to online registration.
The Court of Chief Justice Akil Kureshi and Justice S Talapatra further directed the state that it should consider whether it is feasible to publish vaccination bulletin on a daily basis.
During the course of the hearing some of the advocates shared their concerns about the major covid sectors in the city of Agartala and the situation prevailing in COVID wards.
According to them:
- Relatives of admitted covid patients being allowed freely to enter covered wards without even taking basic precautions of wearing PPE kits etc.
- There is a heavy congestion of covid beds in certain halls.
- The state control room which was previously providing information of the status of the covered patients to the relatives from the centralised place has become dysfunctional.
To this the bench asked the Advocate General to get instructions on these aspects and asked the administration to take measures as found necessary.
The state has also been asked to consider whether it is feasible to publish vaccination bulletin on a daily basis which would include besides other details as may be found relevant, the following:
- Our total number of persons vaccinated in the state with a break up of those who are below the age of 45 years and those above the age of 45 years,
- A total number of persons vaccinated on that particular day,
- A total of vaccine doses available with the State Administration at the end of the day,
- Whether additional vaccine doses are likely to be received in near future, information about the same may also be provided.
Moreover, the court observed that one of the prime modes if not the sole means of receiving vaccine is through online registration and that in the state of Tripura, there may be a sizable population who may not have access to online registration.
The court ordered that, “The state may consider providing fullest assistance to such populace so that there is no class divide for access to vaccination.”
The court also cautioned the state agencies and the people of the state to take note of the fact that positivity rate has remained largely constant hovering around 7%.
The bench shed light on this aspect to demonstrate that: “Even if on a given day or for a few days at a stretch there is a visible dip in number of covid positive patients, it does not imply that the spread of the virus in the state is on the decline. We are sure the state administration is acutely conscious about this, nevertheless through”
