No SoP issued for mandatory carrying of vaccination certificate: Centre

NEW DELHI: At a time when many states and airlines insist on visitors carrying Covid vaccination certificate to gain entry into the state or fly to destinations, the Centre informed the Supreme Court late on Sunday night that it has "not issues any Standard Operating Procedure which make carrying of vaccination certificate mandatory for any purpose".

This was in response to a petition seeking exemption from vaccination certificates for persons with disabilities. The Centre said that the government is running 'vaccination for all' programmes, including near to home or at home vaccination strategies, providing facilities that would enable disabled persons to get vaccinated without hindrance.

The Centre said it has advised all states and UTs to "vaccinate bed ridden or beneficiaries with extremely restricted mobility or disability and/or special needs along with their caregivers at their places of residence using mobile vaccination teams". A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Surya Kant will take up the case for hearing later today.

The health ministry in its affidavit informed the SC that eSanjeevaniOPD, a patient-doctor telemedicine platform, which was rolled out on April 13, 2020, is functional in 30 states and around 25,000 doctors are on board this platform to advise Covid patients and their relatives about medicines and care to be given to Covid patients.

"Over 531 online OPDs are functional on eSanjeevaniOPD of which 480 are specialist and super-specialist OPDs and 51 are general OPDs. Till Now, 63.6 lakh consultations have been effected on eSanjeevaniOPD, which work round the clock and available even on holidays," it said.