Prominent deaths could have been avoided with door-to-door COVID-19 vaccination policy in place: Bombay High Court to Centre

"If door-to-door vaccination had been in place, a lot of prominent deaths could have avoided," the Bombay High Court remarked today while directing the Central government to reconsider its stand on door-to-door COVID-19 vaccination of elderly and bed-ridden citizens. ."I am not taking names. Particularly considering the recent deaths. Considering their health condition, I wonder how we could have vaccinated them," the Court added..The Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni made the remark while questioning Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh as to why there was no response from the Centre to their order of April 22..The Court had passed the said order enlisting reasons for not agreeing with the Centre's affidavit in the matter..ASG Singh informed the Court that the policy was going to have national level repercussions, which is something it had stated in its affidavit filed before the Supreme Court. .The Court, however, pointed out that the Central government should have considered the policy in compliance with its order, irrespective of the affidavit filed in the Supreme Court. .Advocate Dhruti Kapadia, petitioner-in-person, made three suggestions to the Court during today's hearing.Co-operative societies were seen to be holding vaccination camps for their people and something similar could be considered for the elderly and people who have no identity cards on them.There was still no clarity on how bed-ridden patients who are confined to their residences are to be vaccinated.People of a higher age group who are not technologically sound will not be able to comply with the mandate of registration on the CoWin application..In response to these submissions, CJ Datta informed Kapadia that the administrative committee of the Bombay High Court, which includes himself, held a meeting with the Municipal Commissioner of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday. In the meeting, they were informed that BMC was planning to hold vaccination camps in each of the wards located within their jurisdiction to decentralise the vaccination process..The judges also expressed their concern at the photographs they saw in newspapers of wheelchair-bound senior citizens waiting in queues outside vaccination centres. .Terming it as "not a happy sight," the Court remarked that senior citizens waiting to get vaccinated may contract COVID-19..To this, Singh responded that they should all wait and see how the ward-wise vaccination drive pans out before taking a call on the door-to-door policy. .Before adjourning the matter, the Court directed Centre to come up with an answer after "re-looking" at the policy. It also directed the State to file an affidavit on Monday giving details on the vaccination drive conducted..Finally, the municipal corporations of Mumbai and Pune were directed to apprise the Court on their strategy to conduct vaccination of people who do not hold a single identity card..The matter will be taken up for hearing next on May 19.