The date of delivery of vaccines should be notified by the Centre in advance, the government said. (File) THE STATE government on Monday told the Bombay High Court that according to a Union government communication issued to states in the last month, it has decided to allocate 70 per cent of Covid-19 vaccines available with it on priority for administering the second dose of the jab and the remaining will be used for first dose.
The state government further said that the Centre instead of its earlier practice of providing fortnightly estimates of vaccine allocation has now started giving date-wise allocation of vaccines for the entire month in advance.
However, the state said that the date of actual delivery of vaccines by manufacturers differ causing problems in streamline distribution of vials to the district and civic authorities across the state according to their requirement. Therefore, the date of delivery of vaccines should be notified by the Centre in advance, the government said.
The state government, through an affidavit filed by Dilip Narayan Patil, Deputy Director, State Health Welfare Bureau, also said that personnel at vaccination centres have been sensitized and trained to help people, who are deprived of digital means or are not tech savvy, to register themselves on the CoWIN portal to get inoculated.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), through senior advocate Anil Sakhare submitted that nearly 89 lakh people in the city are vaccinated at least with dose of the vaccine, while over 22 lakh among them are fully vaccinated with the administration of second dose. The BMC also submitted that half of the 4,889 registered bedridden or immobile persons registered for home vaccination are administered with the first dose of vaccine.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Girish S Kulkarni was hearing a PIL filed by Yogeeta Vanzara, through advocates Rajesh Vanzara and Jamsheed Master. The plea raised several issues related to CoWIN, seeking orderly administration of jabs.
The HC was also hearing a PIL filed by Mumbai-based lawyer Siddharth Chandrashekhar, represented by advocate Anita Shekhar-Castellino seeking the court’s intervention on issues faced while booking slots on the CoWin portal and priority vaccination slots for the elderly.
The bench also directed BMC to file an affidavit by Friday indicating the status of people, who were vaccinated with either one or two doses and posted a hearing on PIL for final disposal on Monday, August 30.
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