PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will start Covid-19 vaccinations for pregnant women from Tuesday. Officials from the civic body said beneficiaries in this group, along with those with disabilities, will be given priority across the PMC’s 197 sites, including the option to register on the spot.
In Pimpri Chinchwad, PCMC officials said they will continue with their drives for the 18-44 and 45-plus groups from 62 centres. The PCMC has also set aside four hubs specifically for Covaxin. Sources said the PCMC is likely to announce its plans for pregnant women on Tuesday.
Sanjay Deshmukh, assistant director (medical), said, "The training of trainers (TOT) was held on Monday for health staff from centres that will be inoculating pregnant women from Tuesday. The staff are from urban and rural centres. Now that guidelines and directives, the local units can start vaccinating pregnant women against Covid."
Vaishali Jadhav, the PMC's vaccination chief, confirmed that pregnant women and people with disabilities will be given jabs on priority at civic sites. She added that response to the vaccines has been good. “On July 3, we had over 54,000 vaccinations at government and private sites. The number could've been much higher if had received more doses," she said.
On Monday, the district received 95,000 Covishield doses, which officials said will keep civic vaccination centres running for the next three days.
Coverage was low on Monday with the district recording a total of 29,108 vaccine beneficiaries. Covishield availability was limited across civic sites, but officials said stock at private hospitals helped maintain some of the momentum.
