Bombay High Court orders NEGVAC to examine feasibility of door to door vaccination policy

The Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) to examine the feasibility of door to door COVID vaccination for elderly and disabled citizens..The Bench directed the expert committee of NEGVAC to submit its suggestions to the Court within 2 weeks. A Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni also stated that if NEGVAC decides in favour of door to door vaccination, then it should implement the policy immediately without waiting for the Court's order. .The order was passed in a 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. Advocate Dhruti Kapadia, the petitioner-in-person, informed the Court on Thursday that the village of Behrampur in Odisha had a door to door vaccination policy which they discontinued today morning. The Court noted that the reason for the discontinuation of the vaccination drive was that the Central government did not have a policy and not because of any Adverse Effects Following Immunization (AEFI) as claimed by the Centre.From the Loksabha discussion by the Ministry of Health and Welfare shared by Kapadia, the Court noted that the AEFI cases were less than 2 percent and the death rate was less than 1 percent..Relying upon the personal instances given by lawyers, the court noted that there was utter mismanagement at the vaccination centres. "Officers are thoroughly insensitive. Instead of having people rush to the centres, you should chase them for vaccinations. Why cannot this approach be thought of. This is not how you deal with such an important issue. Your officials have disappointed us," the Court said. .The Court through its own research also found out that NEGVAC was constituted in August 2020 specifically for COVID vaccination. They directed the ASG to get instructions from the chairman of NEGVAC on giving their opinion on the door to door vaccination policy as that was not considered by them so far.When ASG responded that NEGVAC will give their response within 2 weeks, the Court decided that they will not pass a detailed order without examining the recommendations of the NEGVAC expert committee. .The Court had on Wednesday directed 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.The BMC responded on Thursday that it is willing to implement door to door vaccination, if the Central government comes out with a policy for the same and issues guidelines to that effect..Expressing its disappointment at the stand taken in the affidavit, the Court rapped the BMC officials on Thursday for not taking into consideration the elderly and disabled in their vaccination programme. "What was the praise in the newspaper and media for.. publicity? You cannot think for the elderly and bedridden. If you do not have stock, you stop vaccines for all. Why this selective vaccination going on? Can you discriminate like that?".The Court on Thursday also heard a plea concerning issues for booking of vaccination slots on the CoWin vaccination portal. After taking into consideration the nature of issues raised in the petition, the Court directed the respondents to file their responses on the plea. The Bench directed that online registrants who have confirmed appointments should be given preference over the on the spot registrants. It also urged the respondent authorities to make "honest endeavours to ensure that the elderly citizens are not made to wait in long queues and that immediate steps are taken to vaccinate them at the centre". .Both the cases will be taken up next on June 2, 2021.[Read orders here]