Covid-19: 1,685 home jabs in Mumbai by BMC with zero adverse effects; very encouraging, says HC

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday said it was very encouraging to know that the civic corporation in Mumbai administered 1,317 home vaccinations to bedridden citizens with zero instances of any Adverse Effect Following Immunization (AEFI), till August 9.
Senior counsel Anil Sakhare for BMC said by August 11, the number of those who vaccinated at home rose to 1,685. He said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) would speed up the process now.
The HC bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Girish Kulkarni expressed satisfaction with the Covid-19 vaccination drive by the BMC for bedridden and homebound elderly citizens and expressed hope that it continues to vaccinate more in the coming days.
The HC said other municipal corporations may now follow what the BMC has done.
BMC in an August 10 affidavit informed the HC that 4,889 people had registered to be beneficiaries of home jabs. Public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Dhruti Kapadia in April had sought a policy for doorstep jabs to the elderly and homebound, specially-abled persons. Several hearings and interim orders later, the Maharashtra government came up with a policy for the special category and a pilot project was launched by the BMC in Mumbai on August 1.
The BMC also said that for the drive it took NGO support in some wards for manpower and ‘Basic Life Support' ambulance. Project Mumbai is an NGO that partnered with BMC for the door-to-door vaccination drive.
On July 30, BMC said it did a pre-pilot project with NGO support, where 37 bedridden beneficiaries got the jabs in door-to-door vaccination.
The role of NGOs can be to help in calling recipients three-four days earlier, sensitizing local doctors and help beneficiaries to obtain the fitness certificates and also to arrange for doctors to wait for 30 minutes post-vaccination and assist with manpower to “ease the burden of an already strained public health system.’’
The SOP requires the person to be certified by a doctor as bedridden for the next six months to have a doctor certify that s/he is fit to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, also a family member must sign an informed consent form.