Bombay high court
MUMBAI: The Centre’s approach in vaccinating people agai-nst Covid-19 should be like a “su-rgical strike”, the Bombay high court observed on Wednesday.
In its 12-page order, a bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni said, “If one has to combat Covid-19 treating the situation to be war-like, the ‘near-to-home’ vaccination policy takes the war against the enemy to the borders but falls clearly short of a ‘surgical strike’ on the virus which is the need of the hour and could have been possible by administering vaccines to the bedridden. The policy, though formulated by experts, does appear to have a chink in the armoury to combat the enemy.”
A sea of people had assembled at Juhu Chowpatty on Sunday evening
MUMBAI: The civic authorities plan to start administering the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to healthcare workers from Monday provided the Co-win application supports it. Sessions have been created for 1,926 individuals who took the vaccine on January 16, the first day of the nation-wide vaccine drive. Many from the medical fraternity, however, told TOI that they would delay taking the second dose immediately in light of the WHO recommendation that the booster dose was most efficacious when taken between 8-12 weeks. Civic officials said they haven’t got any communication from the Centre or state to extend the interval between the two doses which currently stands at four weeks.
Mumbai Police get the shots of Covid-19 vaccine ‘Covishield’ at Nair hospital, in Mumbai on Saturday (ANI Photo)
MUMBAI: Not only will the state authorities start administering the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine from Monday, private hospitals in Mumbai will also be allowed to vaccinate their staff in the coming week.
According to a notification issued by the public health department of the state government on Saturday, when 31,976 healthcare and frontline workers were administered the vaccine shots, those healthcare workers who have received their first dose of the vaccine and have completed a four-week period from that point of time can now take the second dose in accordance with the standard guidelines laid down by Union health ministry.
Representative Image
MUMBAI: Maharashtra may add more Covaxin centres to the existing six as additional doses of the Bharat Biotech vaccine are expected soon. In a bid to accelerate vaccination, the state has also planned to finish administering at least one Covid vaccine dose to its healthcare workers in the next 12 session days.
Maharashtra is behind over a dozen states on vaccination: its completion rate of 45% is well below the national average of 55%. Among the states, it has the highest number of registered healthcare workers to be vaccinated, though till now UP has vaccinated the most in India (6.73 lakh) followed by Maharashtra.