Kerala HC urges Vijayan govt to consider providing free 1-month post-COVID treatment

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday urged the state government to provide at least one month of free follow-up treatment after an individual tests negative for COVID-19. A division bench of Justices Devan Ramachandran and Kauser Edappagath was hearing the Kerala Private Hospitals Association's review petition regarding the COVID-19 treatment charges in private hospitals and the post-COVID treatment charges of Above Poverty Line (APL) patients. Observing that patients had faced graver health problems after testing negative, it stressed that not everyone above the poverty line is a millionaire.

While the state government argued that the post-COVID treatment charges for APL patients were nominal, the HC stated, "What will happen to a person earning a monthly salary of Rs 27,000 if he was charged a daily rent of Rs 700 for post-Covid treatment? How will he manage the other expenses? How will he even have food?"

During a previous hearing, the Kerala High Court expressed concern over the attack on healthcare workers and directed the state government to publicise the penal consequences for the same. Weighing in on the fact that 278 cases have been registered under the Kerala Health Care Service Persons and Health Care Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act, 2012, it stressed that the attempt to intimidate healthcare workers cannot be tolerated. To combat this menace, the Pinarayi Vijayan-led government has already taken steps such as the installation of CCTVs in hospitals. 

COVID-19 situation in India

As per the Health Ministry data on Wednesday, the active cases in India declined to 2,46,687- the lowest in 203 days. The improving novel coronavirus situation has been attributed to the rapid vaccination rate in the last few weeks. From June 21 onwards, the Centre started procuring 75% of the vaccine stock and distributing it to the states for free. Apart from Covishield and Covaxin, the Drugs Controller General of India has approved Sputnik V, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson's Janssen vaccine, and Zydus Cadila's ZyCoV-D.

The government has already hinted at vaccinating the entire adult population i.e nearly 90 crore people by December itself. In another development, the DCGI approved a study on mixing Covishield and Covaxin. This came after the ICMR observed in a preprint study that a combination of these COVID-19 vaccines elicited better safety and immunogenicity results than two doses of the same vaccine.

In this case, the Christian Medical College, Vellore will conduct the clinical trials on 300 healthy volunteers. The aim of this study will be to ascertain whether two different vaccine doses can be administered to a person instead of the current practice of administering two shots of the same vaccine. A total of 67,02,08,250 persons have been inoculated whereas 25,56,09,339 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too.