MUMBAI: Pregnant women may have to wait some more before they can get vaccinated against Covid in the city. Civic authorities said that they are yet to chalk out a plan and select centres that would be earmarked for them.
The Union health ministry on July 2 approved the vaccination of pregnant women since they are at an increased risk for preterm birth and other adverse pregnancy outcomes if infected with Covid. The Centre has also prepared operational guidelines, counselling kit for medical officers and frontline workers and information material for people to read and understand the risks and benefits.
Dr Mangala Gomare, BMC’s executive health officer, confirmed that vaccination of pregnant women wouldn’t start immediately. “We will be shortlisting centres first. That will be followed by training of healthcare workers who would be informing pregnant women about the risks and benefits,” she said. The city may have over a lakh pregnant women waiting to get vaccinated. The procedures and modalities of vaccination like registration, generation of certificates after vaccination etc, will remain the same as it is for any beneficiaries above 18 years.
Meanwhile, the city on Monday vaccinated over 69,515 people, taking the number of people who have got both doses to nearly 12 lakh and those with one dose to 34 lakh. More doses were administered at the public centres compared to private hospitals. Gomare said that the city will have vaccination at regular hours on Wednesday (9am-5pm) since it had received stocks of 95,000 doses on Monday.
Across the state, nearly 3.9 lakh doses were administered on Tuesday. The state has finished administering both doses to over 71 lakh people. State officials said that the state has been assured of 1.1crore doses of vaccine in July.
