Certain sections of society resisting covid vaccine: Madras HC

Chennai, May 24 (PTI) The Madras High Court on Monday said there was "resistance" in accepting covid vaccination in certain sections of society and called for awareness campaigns to educate the people.

Superstitions and archaic beliefs practiced in some communities stand in the way of scientific measures being implemented "and there continues to be a resistance to accepting vaccination in certain sections of the society," the court said.

The observations were made by the first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy while hearing a matter taken up on its own, regarding COVID-19 management in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring Puducherry.

"Awareness campaigns and like measures need to be undertaken to educate the citizens, particularly in the rural areas, to step forward and take the vaccine," the bench said.

"Both the Centre and the State should take appropriate measures to allay the misgivings that may be harboured in such regard," the judges added.

On the vaccine front, citing the Centre's affidavit, the court said it 'indicates' augmentation of production by various firms.

"Learned Additional Solicitor General informs the Court that as per the plan put in place by the Centre, 216 crore doses of vaccine should be available by the end of the year for every Indian to be fully vaccinated," it said.

However, "the future allocation of vaccines for Tamil Nadu appears to be somewhat disappointing," the bench said.

"Though the Centre maintains that the allocation is based on the population of a State, the positivity rate prevailing in such State and like objective factors, the allocation to Tamil Nadu, as indicated in the Centre's affidavit, may require to be revisited." "However, there is hope that vaccines would be available in greater numbers upon the various manufacturing units augmenting their production facilities," the judges said. PTI SA APR ADMINISTRATOR APR ADMINISTRATOR