Tell us if you can carry out door to door vaccination for elderly, disabled persons: Bombay High Court to BMC

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to inform the Court on whether the municipal body would be willing to conduct the door to door vaccination for COVID-19 for elderly and disabled citizens. .A Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni indicated during the hearing that if BMC is willing to start a door to door vaccination, then it will be given permission for the same even if Centre has no door to door vaccination policy in place."This is concerning people who cannot come out. They cannot even be brought down. Should they not have vaccine only because they cannot be brought out," the Court demanded. .The Court was informed by the government lawyers that one of the requirements at a vaccination camp is to place the vaccinated persons under 30-minute observation to check for 'Adverse Events Following Immunization' (AEFI). The Bench, however, retorted by asking how many such cases have been reported where an emergency arose after taking vaccine shot. .The Court was hearing the plea seeking directions to the Central and State governments, along with the BMC to start door-to-door COVID-19 vaccination for citizens above 75 years of age and those who are specially-abled or bed-ridden..Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh informed the Court that an expert committee had been appointed for examining the proposal of door to door vaccination for elderly and disabled citizens. The committee proposed strategies including Community-based Outreach Session (COS) to provide COVID-19 vaccines to a defined population, Singh submitted. He further informed the Court that to support elderly and disabled citizens residing around COS both in urban and rural areas, transport arrangements can be made to facilitate their travel to the session site..The Court was however dissatisfied with these suggestions. "They may be experts in the field, but they seem to have zero knowledge of the ground reality," the Court commented on the strategy. Terming it the 'opposite of door to door vaccination', the Court stated that these submissions made by Singh failed to spell out the exact reasons for not having a door to door policy.The Court also enquired with the Central government on why it could not make a provision to give permission to authorities who can carry out door to door vaccination. "With proper consideration of the risks, if they are willing to do it, then why not let them do it?" Court enquired..BMC had earlier filed an affidavit in the court which relief upon a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for COVID-19 vaccination of persons without prescribed identity cards through CoWin issued by Maharashtra government.The SOP was made applicable to specific target group of citizens, including nomads, citizens in old age homes, road side beggars, people residing in rehabilitation centres etc. Advocate Dhruti Kapadia, petitioner-in-person informed the Court that while the SOP was a step in the right direction, it did not include bed-ridden citizens, and citizens who could not approach the NGOs.The Court however decided to wait for the results of such SOP before making any observations. .The case will be heard again on Thursday this week when the BMC is expected to submit its response of door to door vaccination. [Read order here]