HC directs ADCs, legal authority to undertake pro-vax campaigns

SHILLONG, Dec 6: Observing that there are ‘reservations in certain quarters regarding vaccination’, the division bench of the High Court of Meghalaya on Monday directed the Autonomous District Councils and other authorities, including the Meghalaya State Legal Services Authority, to undertake a campaign to educate people and convince them to take the vaccination.
Hearing a PIL pertaining to the action taken by the state to deal with the pandemic, the division bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice W Diengdoh said the state should adopt an aggressive policy in undertaking awareness drives to convince people to take the vaccine, not only for their own benefit, but also for the protection of others.
“It will also be open to the state to formulate rules or guidelines so that persons unwilling to take vaccination do not expose themselves to others,” the order stated.
The state submitted before the court that vaccines are available in sufficient quantity.
The Court also directed that a detailed report as to the extent of vaccination conducted till the end of November, 2021 should be filed when the matter is heard in ten days.
No case of Omicron in state
Meghalaya has, so far, not reported any case of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 even as cases continue to be reported in several states.
A Health official said on Monday that the department is sequencing all positive samples and no case of Omicron has been detected so far.
Meghalaya has revised its SOPs for visitors and returnees from affected countries and states.
Meanwhile, the state on Monday recorded 16 fresh cases of COVID-19 while no death was reported in the past 24 hours.
The active tally now stands at 246 while 82,878 people have recovered from the viral infection including 14 on the day. The death toll in the state remains at 1,475.