Kriti Agrawal –
As citizens in Maharashtra struggle to schedule a vaccination slots, the Bombay High Court asks the Maharashtra government’s reaction to idea for offering Cowin vaccination slots on a weekly basis.
In Maharashtra, several PILs on covid related problems have been filed in the High Court, and one such PIL is now being heard by Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni.
According to the petitioner, the Center’s directions are being implemented in eight districts in Maharashtra, where vaccine slots are listed on the web for the entire week. In order to achieve policy consistency across the state, the petitioner has requested that slots be released on a weekly basis throughout the state.
The petitioner has made six recommendations to the state government, pointing out that under the Center’s policy, vaccination slots are only available for one week.
Aside from this action, he has also advised that persons with co-morbidities between the ages of 18 and 44 be given priority for vaccination.
Meanwhile, the Center notified the Bombay High Court that a near-to-door vaccination program is preferable to door-to-door covid-19 vaccination for old residents, the disabled, the bedridden, and the wheelchair-bound, which is now not possible.
The Health Ministry informed the Bombay High Court in an affidavit that close-to-home covid vaccination centers would include vaccination injections at non-health facilities such as community centers, schools, and old-age homes.
The Bombay High Court had advised the Center that it needed to reconsider its policy stating that door-to-door vaccination drives were not viable due to a variety of factors, and had directed the chairman of the National Expert Group for Vaccine Administration of covid19 (NEGVAC) to do so.
The High Court had stated that if the BMC was willing, the Court would issue permission regardless of the Union’s position. The Center had objected to this approach since it involved door-to-door vaccination, citing AEFI treatment, monitoring, vaccine storage, and wastage.