Appreciating the efforts of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in its home vaccination drive to vaccinate bed-ridden persons, the Bombay high court has observed that it was “encouraging that none of the 1,317 persons had any side effects”.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Girish Kulkarni has also asked other municipal corporations and municipal councils in the Maharashtra to start home vaccination drives by following the BMC’s pattern.
The HC was hearing public interest litigation (PILs) filed by advocates Dhruti Kapadia and Kunal Tiwari seeking a direction to the Union government to start door-to-door vaccination for senior citizens above the age of 75 years, specially-abled persons and those who are bed-ridden or wheelchair-bound as they would be unable to go to the vaccination centres.
The BMC had filed an affidavit early this week stating that it has given home vaccination to 1,317 bed-ridden persons as of August 9 and there hasn’t been a single case of Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI) in these persons. So far, 4,889 bedridden individuals have registered for home vaccination as on August 9.
After going through the affidavit, the chief justice remarked: “More than 25 percent of the registered persons have been vaccinated. The encouraging part is that none of the 1,317 persons vaccinated had any Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI).”
“We record satisfaction that the corporation is moving in the right direction. We expect corporation to cover more such persons in the home vaccination drive in the coming days,” added the judges.
Kapadia informed the HC that similar home vaccination drives were started Mira Bhayander Municipal Corporation and Thane Municipal Corporation.
Taking note of this, the judges said: “We encourage other municipal corporations and municipal councils to initiate measures for home vaccination of bedridden persons in accordance with the (Maharashtra) state policy and following the same pattern as that of the BMC.”
Kapadia argued on Thursday that the corporation had failed to clearly chalk out the role of NGOs in the home vaccination drive. The BMC affidavit stated that take help from NGOs in some wards for manpower support and basic life support ambulances.
The HC observed that there was nothing on record to stop corporation from taking assistance from the NGOs for administering requisite vaccination.
Additional government pleader Geeta Shastri informed the HC that they had forwarded Kapadia’s suggestions to the Maharashtra State Covid Task Force.
Kapadia had suggested that a BMC doctor could visit the bed-ridden patient and ascertain it s/he was “fit for COVID-19 vaccine”. She has also suggested that an easy booking system should be started for registration for home vaccination which include helpline number, website, SMS booking and WhatsApp Booking. So far BMC has an email id where patients have to register.
BMC initially carried out a pilot run on July 30 with the help of an NGO in which 37 persons were vaccinated at their homes. Since August 2, the corporation has started home vaccination drive in all 24 wards in the city.
