Madras HC directs TN govt to prioritise COVID-19 vaccination of persons with disabilities

On Monday, the Madras High Court directed the Tamil Nadu government to take steps for prioritising COVID-19 vaccination of persons with disabilities irrespective of whether they have attained the age of 45. A division bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy was hearing a PIL filed by polio survivor Meenakshi Subramanian. She sought the expansion of the inoculation coverage to include persons with disabilities and their caregivers as they face a lot of challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The state government has been given three days to take a reasoned decision on the minimum age limit of such persons who would be eligible for vaccination and it can consult the Centre for this purpose. The HC also suggested that the Tamil Nadu government can consider administering the vaccine to persons above 18 years who are suffering from any form of disability as indicated in the first schedule of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. Moreover, the bench took on record the State's submission that all government vaccination centres will have a separate counter for disabled persons throughout the day so that they are not made to wait. 

At present, there are 70,391 active novel coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu while 9,07,947 patients have been discharged besides 13,113 fatalities. While a total of 41,27,779 persons have been inoculated in the state so far, 6,53,063 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too. A day earlier, the AIADMK government-imposed Sunday lockdown and night curfew across the state from 10 pm to 4 am. 

Here are the new COVID-19 guidelines in TN: 

• During Sunday lockdown - parks, beaches, museums, meat shops, fish market, vegetable shops, Cinema theatres will be closed
• Parcel service and home delivery is allowed in restaurants from 6.00 am to 10.00 pm, from noon to 3.00 pm and from 6.00 pm to 9.00 pm
• Only 50% employees allowed to work in IT firm offices, while the rest would be working from home
• Tourism suspended in hill stations such as Nilgiris, Kodaikanal, Yercaud
• 12th board exams postponed
• Shopping malls, eateries, vegetable and fruit shops, textile and jewellery showrooms must restrict customers to 50% till 9 pm
• College, university exams and classes can be conducted online
• Theatres, restaurants to continue to function with 50 per cent capacity
• Weddings will have a maximum of 100 people in attendance
• No new restrictions announced for inter-state travel