Kerala HC asks Centre to redress grievance of NRI jabbed with Covaxin seeking to go abroad

The Kerala High Court gave one month to the Centre to redress the grievance of an NRI seeking permission to take the third dose of an internationally recognized vaccine. Working in Saudi Arabia, petitioner Girikumar Thekkan Kunnumpurath was administered two doses of Covaxin after he returned to India in January this year. However, the petitioner expressed apprehension that he will not be allowed to return to Saudi Arabia as the West Asian country doesn't recognise Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine.

Stating that he will lose his job if he doesn't return to Saudi Arabia soon, he highlighted that the only option available to him is the Covishield jab. But, he mentioned that getting a third dose is not possible at the moment as the CoWIN website doesn't permit the same. Citing news reports and a study by Oxford University, Kunnumpurath stressed that the booster dose augments the immune response against the novel coronavirus. 

Pinning the responsibility on the Centre, a single-judge bench of Justice PV Kunhikrishnan observed, "This is a constitutional violation; a clear case of infringement of fundamental rights of a citizen. His very right to movement is restricted. A citizen is suffering due to a state-sponsored vaccination scheme." 

Delay in WHO's approval 

Covaxin is a Whole Virion Inactivated Coronavirus Vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR and NIV. While the phase 3 trials entailed 25,800 participants between 18-98 years of age including 10% over the age of 60, the analysis was conducted 14 days after administering the second dose of the vaccine. It has shown overall 77.8% efficacy and 93.4% efficacy against severe COVID-19 disease as per the final results. 

On the other hand, efficacy data demonstrates 63.6% protection against asymptomatic COVID-19 disease. Most importantly, it has proven to neutralise variants such as B.1.1.7 (Alpha), B.1.617 (Kappa), B.1.351 (Beta) and B.1.617.2 (Delta). The Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Corporation Ltd, Mumbai; Indian Immunologicals Limited in Hyderabad and Ankleshwar, Bharat Immunologicals Biologicals Limited in Bulandshahr and the Biovet facility in Bengaluru have also been permitted to produce Covaxin.

While Bharat Biotech had submitted the data required for WHO’s approval on July 9, 2021, the World Health Organization's decision on including Covaxin in its Emergency Use Listing has been repeatedly delayed. The Technical Advisory Group for Emergency Use Listing will meet on Wednesday to conduct a final risk-benefit assessment for global use of this COVID-19 vaccine. The emergency use approval can be a gamechanger amid the COVID-19 crisis as it is likely to encourage countries to import the vaccine, facilitate its manufacturing abroad and ease global travel for those vaccinated with it.