Sikkim HC questions state govt's 'biasedness' in allotment of vaccines

GANGTOK: The Sikkim High Court on Tuesday denounced the state government for operating a flawed system of vaccination booking and prioritizing just one district over all other districts.

The slot booking for vaccination in the state takes place in the early hours of the day and the slots get filled within seconds by the residents of East Sikkim.

After observing this flawed process, the HC questioned the Health department if the phone lines of the people from other districts are being blocked in some way.

The court further went on to question why East Sikkim has been prioritized over all other districts.

Even if residents from other districts were somehow able to book slots, they were unable to avail the service due to the lockdown; observed HC.

With a limited quota of 200 vaccines per day and the fact that it gets booked within moments, the High Court asked how the Himalayan state would vaccinate its entire population by October.

Responding to the questions, the state government said that they have placed

Meanwhile, the state government argued that they have placed requests for vaccines from the Serum Institute of India and around 11,000 dosages have been allocated for the month of June.

During a press conference on Monday, the state health department had said that a private medical hospital, Central Referral Hospital in Gangtok has received 21,000 doses of the vaccine.

On being questioned about the number of vaccination centres in the state, the government replied that all four districts have have vaccination centres for 45+ age group. However, for the 18-44 age group, vaccination centres are present only in East Sikkim district, informed the state government