Home vaccination drive will start in Mumbai from August 1: State to HC

The Maharashtra government on Tuesday informed the Bombay high court (HC) that it will be starting the home vaccination drive in Mumbai from August 1

The Maharashtra government on Tuesday informed the Bombay high court (HC) that it will be starting the home vaccination drive in Mumbai from August 1. The state informed HC that its original plan of starting home vaccination on experimental basis from Pune was changed to Mumbai after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) submitted that through a door-to-door survey, it had identified around 3,505 people in 24 wards who are bedridden and severely ill.

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The court expressed satisfaction over the state government’s decision to formulate the much-delayed policy for home vaccination of severely ill, elderly and bedridden persons and also lauded BMC’s initiative. The court, however, did not mince words and said that the Centre had failed to rise to the occasion by not acceding to the requests for door-to-door vaccination policy and instead stuck to the near-to-home vaccination policy suggested by NEGVAC.

The division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Girish Kulkarni, was hearing the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by lawyers Dhruti Kapadia and Kunal Tiwari, which sought directions from the Centre, state and BMC to start door-to-door vaccination facility for persons over 75 years of age, the specially-abled and the bedridden.

On Tuesday, advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni and advocate Akshay Shinde appearing for the state government, submitted that a draft policy for home vaccination of needy persons had been prepared as per HC’s directions. Kumbhakoni submitted that as on Monday, it had identified 17,288 bedridden and immobile persons who requested jabs at their residence online.

He added that physically disabled, patients on stretchers, wheelchair-bound persons and patients whose immunity is compromised and terminally ill patients who cannot go to vaccination centres were eligible for receiving vaccination at home.

Kumbhakoni then submitted that as on Monday, the BMC had identified around 3,505 patients who expressed interest for home vaccination and hence it was decided to start the drive in Mumbai from August 1 rather than at Pune. The response till Monday from Pune was 50 persons only. He added that the drive in Mumbai would strictly adhere to vaccination protocols.

Kumbhakoni then assured the bench that the draft policy would be finalised without major modifications and a status report of home vaccinated persons would be placed before the court in the next hearing.

Senior counsel Anil Sakhare for BMC confirmed the willingness of the civic authority to conduct home vaccination free-of-cost from August 1. Sakhare added that a policy was required for private hospitals so that they can also provide facilities of home vaccination.

Advocate Dhruti Kapadia said that the initiative by the state government was welcome and added that people over 80 years should also be added in the list of persons eligible for home vaccination.

After hearing submissions, the bench noted in the order, “The Centre did not rise to the occasion. However, we record our satisfaction that the state has risen to the occasion and today we find some light at the end of the tunnel.”

The bench then sought a status report from the authorities and posted hearing of the PIL to August 6.