‘Encouraging’, says Bombay HC on no adverse affect during BMC’s Covid-19 home vaccination

The court also said that other civic bodies and district councils in the state should follow the initiative and implement the home vaccination programme.

The Bombay high court on Thursday said that it was encouraging to see that no adverse reaction was observed in bed-ridden beneficiaries, who received the Covid-19 vaccine under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) home vaccination programme. The court also said that other civic bodies and district councils in the state should follow the initiative and implement the home vaccination programme.

BMC submitted an affidavit in which it said that 4,889 bed-ridden people had registered for home-vaccination and 1,317 were inoculated. (PTI)

Remarks by the court came after the BMC submitted an affidavit earlier on Wednesday in which it said that 4,889 bed-ridden people had registered for home-vaccination and 1,317 were inoculated, news agency PTI reported. The BMC also noted that no adverse reaction was observed in any beneficiaries. The door-to-door vaccination was implemented as a pilot project in Mumbai on July 30.

Following this, a division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni said that the BMC was moving in the right direction on the door-to-door vaccination programme. “This statement is very encouraging. We record our satisfaction that the BMC has been moving in the right direction. We hope and trust that more such people are covered in the home vaccination drive,” PTI reported the HC bench as observing.

“We would encourage all other municipal corporations and district councils across the state to initiate measures for home vaccination of bed-ridden individuals in accordance with the state government's policy and following the same pattern as adopted by the BMC,” the bench added.

Advocates Dhruti Kapadia and Kunal Tiwari had filed a public interest litigation (PIL) which sought directions for the Union government to begin Covid-19 vaccination at home for senior citizens above 75 years of age, specially-abled people and for people who are bed-ridden or wheelchair-bound. The petition said that such people would not be able to go to vaccination centres.

Earlier, the centre had not introduced the door-to-door vaccination drive citing vaccine wastage and the risk of adverse reactions. However, the Maharashtra state government in July said that it would begin the programme and also formulated a policy for its implementation following which the drive started in Mumbai as a pilot project.

Meanwhile, the court has posted the plea for further hearing on September 9. On Thursday, advocate Kapadia told the court that the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation and the Thane Municipal Corporation have also implemented the home vaccination drive.

(With PTI inputs)