New Delhi. The Delhi High Court on Thursday said that COVID-19 is now being termed as an epidemic of unvaccinated people and the government should vaccinate the elderly and unwell people at the earliest. The court is hearing a petition seeking an immediate policy on door-to-door vaccination of COVID-19 for bed-ridden senior citizens.
A division bench of Justice Manmohan and Justice Navin Chawla was informed by the counsel for the 84-year-old petitioner that her client is lying on the bed and has not vaccinated herself even after filing the petition and calling the helpline launched by the Delhi government on January 7. Have pie.
Manan Agarwal, counsel for the petitioner, told the court that when contacted on the helpline number, he was told that he had no knowledge of such vaccinations. However, the Delhi government claims that a ‘door-to-door’ campaign is underway. The bench asked Delhi government’s counsel Ayushi Bansal to find out how many people have been vaccinated so far under this campaign.
Central government counsel Anurag Ahluwalia submitted that the vaccination campaign for the differently-abled and bedridden people started on September 22, 2021 and the ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ campaign started on November 1, 2021, if the petitioner had applied for the Delhi government after this period. If the helpline was called, the Delhi government would have to answer why it was not done.
The court fixed January 20 for the next hearing of the matter after the Delhi government’s counsel sought time for directions. (agency)