Consider people with disabilities as priority group for Covid jab, Madras HC tells Tamil Nadu – Times of India

CHENNAI: The Madras high court on Friday asked the Tamil Nadu government to ascertain whether it could consider including people with disabilities as a priority group for vaccination against Covid-19. The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy made the observation on a public interest writ petition filed by disability rights activist Meenakshi Balasubramanian on Friday.
Meenakshi justified her demand on the ground that people with disabilities, due to their unique characteristics, are incapable of maintaining physical distancing, wearing masks and added that mortality among people with disabilities is reported to be higher than others.
“People with disabilities face three increased risks with devastating consequences – the risk of contracting Covid-19, developing severe symptoms from Covid-19 or dying from the disease as well as having poorer health during and after the pandemic whether or not they are infected,” the petitioner said. Visually impaired people are more reliant on their sense of touch, which is one of the major ways of the virus transmission, and this puts the group at a higher risk, she added.
Similarly, wearing masks is not an option for those with cerebral palsy, autism or any developmental disability as it is not an object they are used to and drooling makes masks unusable, the petitioner pointed out. These apart, people with disabilities are at higher risk of contracting the virus also since they require close contact with others to care for their personal needs, she said.
Noting that countries such as Australia, UK, US have already included people with disabilities to their priority list for the vaccine administration, she said, even the roadmap released by the WHO for prioritising use of vaccines in the context of limited supply has classified people with disabilities as a priority group.
In India, considering all these aspects, Bihar’s directorate of people with disabilities department has requested the health department to consider the group as highly vulnerable, she said.