Door-to-door vaccination not possible, inoculation only at registered centres: Govt tells SC

May 11: The Central Government has ruled out in the Supreme Court door-to-door vaccination of people and said the inoculation will be done at identified COVID Vaccination Centres (CVC), both government and private. The Centre’s reply came on the top court’s query whether it plans to undertake nationwide mass awareness campaign for COVID-19 vaccination and ensuring outreach in rural areas and underprivileged sections by using mobile vans, vehicles and railways to vaccinate people near their doorsteps so as to minimize their travel and potential infection with COVID-19.

The Centre said that four key requirements of CVC under the COVID-19 vaccination programme are availability of adequate space, adequate cold storage facility, adequate number of vaccinators and medical support staff and adequate arrangements for management of Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI). It added that beneficiaries can book the slots in identified CVCs through COWIN software based on their residence pin code, for the comfort and convenience of the people, facilitating the vaccination at nearby CVC.

If the vaccine are administered on a door to door basis, the vaccine carrier box would be required to be opened again and again thereby violating its threshold temperature which is necessary to maintain vaccine efficacy and prevent it from causing AEFI, which may even affect the vaccine confidence and programme performance, said the Centre.

The government pointed out that vaccination at home may expose the healthcare personnel and frontline health workers to undue pressures from the community to vaccinate those other than on due list and hence will need additional security cover as well.