A petition was submitted in the Delhi High Court on Friday seeking directions to the central and Aam Aadmi Party government to vaccinate all Class 10 and 12 students appearing for board exams in the 2020-’21 session, reported PTI.
A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh sent a notice to the Union health and education ministries and the Delhi government seeking their positions on the plea. The High Court also asked whether the Covid-19 vaccines under current use can be administered to those below 18 years.
The plea said there were more reports of the new Covid-19 strains adversely affecting the younger population. Therefore, it was of utmost need to vaccinate the students physically appearing to take the school board exams. The petition was submitted on behalf of three lawyers, Jyoti Aggarwal, Sanjivani Aggarwal and Pradeep Shekhawat.
During the hearing, the Delhi government’s counsel Santosh K Tripathi and the Centre’s legal representative Monika Arora said the Class 10 board exams had been cancelled and the tests for Class 12 students had been postponed.
India’s healthcare infrastructure, which is tackling a surge of Covid-19 cases amid the second wave of the pandemic, has been in shambles as the demand for medical facilities exceeds the supplies. The second wave has also caused severe adverse effects among a younger crowd as new mutant strains emerged during the past few months. This has also taken a toll on normal functioning of the education system in the country as several states have had to cancel exams and shut educational institutions due to an unprecedented rise in infections.
The country on Friday recorded 4,14,188 new coronavirus cases, taking the tally of infections in the country to 2,14,91,598 since the pandemic broke out last year. This is the highest rise in daily cases and the third instance, after May 1, when the count rose by more than 4 lakh. The toll climbed by 3,915 deaths to 2,34,083.
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