Follow Mumbai’s home vax module, HC asks civic bodies across Maharashtra
The HC was informed that the BMC had inoculated 1,317 bedridden and immobile individuals of the 4,889 registered persons without any incidence of adverse events
Expressing satisfaction at the progress of home vaccination drive in Mumbai and other municipal areas in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the Bombay high court (HC) has asked other municipal corporations in the state to consider replicating the home vaccination module of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) within their limits.
The HC was informed that the BMC had inoculated 1,317 bedridden and immobile individuals of the 4,889 registered persons without any incidence of adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) till August 9. The drive was started on a pilot basis on July 30 in the K-East ward.
The division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Girish Kulkarni, while perusing the affidavit filed by the BMC and submissions made by the petitioner advocate Dhruti Kapadia observed, “This figure constitutes roughly 25% of total registered beneficiaries. The encouraging part is that none of the persons vaccinated had any AEFI. We record our satisfaction that the BMC has been moving in the right direction. We expect the corporation to cover more such bedridden individuals in the days to come.”
The petitioner advocate Kapadia who along with advocate Kunal Tiwari had filed the public interest litigation (PIL) seeking directions to the Centre, state and BMC to initiate door-to-door vaccination for people aged above 75 years, the disabled and the bedridden while addressing the court on Thursday submitted that she was happy with the way the drive was going and urged the court to direct BMC to include people above 75 and 80 years in the scheme as well.
Kapadia, however, submitted that the affidavit filed by the BMC on August 10 responding to the queries of the court on the number of people provided jabs at home and the role of NGOs that had been roped in was not clear and hence the BMC should clarify. The BMC affidavit stated that the NGOs would provide support to the teams conducting home vaccination by calling beneficiaries prior to the visit of the team as well as do a follow up with the beneficiary after the jab was administered.
The court observed, “With respect to the nature of support received from NGOs, presently there is nothing on record precluding the corporation from taking help from NGOs to administer vaccines.”
Additional government pleader Geeta Shastri for the state submitted that the suggestions furnished by Kapadia on providing a helpline and introducing biometrics for beneficiaries without proper documents had been forwarded to the state Covid task force for consideration. Shastri assured the HC that once the task force considers them, appropriate action will be taken to implement the approved suggestions for the benefit of the class of people.
The court also took on record the submissions by Kapadia that Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation and Thane Municipal Corporation had also started home vaccination in their jurisdiction and said, “We encourage other corporations of this state to initiate measures for home vaccination of bedridden individuals following the same pattern adopted by BMC.”
The court then asked the state and other authorities to inform it about further developments based on its directives and posted further hearing of the PIL on September 9.
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