Pregnant women can now get vaccinated against the coronavirus disease, the Union health ministry announced on Friday. They can register for the shot on the Centre’s CoWIN portal or can directly walk into vaccination centres.
“The decision empowers pregnant women to make an informed choice on taking the Covid-19 vaccination,” the ministry said in a statement. “The decision has been communicated to all the States/ UTs [Union Territories] to implement it under the ongoing National Covid-19 Vaccination Program.”
The ministry said that the decision was based on the recommendations of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization and the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19. The statement said that the ministry had held discussions with several bodies, including the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India, representatives of state governments and non-governmental organisations.
The National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization had discussed the matter of vaccination of pregnant women in May, reported NDTV. “Considering current situation of pandemic, NTAGI-STSC [National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization-Standing Technical Subcommittee] recommends pregnant women should not be excluded from vaccination because exposure probability is very high and therefore the benefit far outweighs the risk,” the committee had said.
There were some doubts about possible risks to the mother and child, including blood clotting when using the Covishield jab, but the committee decided that the benefits of vaccinating the group outweigh the risk.
“Before vaccination, pregnant women should be fully informed that long-term adverse reactions and safety of vaccine for fetus and child (has) not yet (been) established,” the Centre added.
Studies showed that pregnant women were at more risk due to the coronavirus infection, the health ministry added. “Further, pregnant women with Covid-19 infection are at an increased risk for preterm birth and other adverse pregnancy outcomes including higher chances of neonatal morbidity,” it added.
The ministry added that experts have highlighted pre-existing co-morbidities, advanced maternal age, and high body mass index as factors for severe Covid-19 infections during pregnancy.
The government’s decision came a week after Joint Health Secretary Lav Agarwal had said that pregnant women “can and should” be vaccinated against the infection.
Meanwhile, India on Friday morning reported 46,617 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours, taking its tally since the pandemic broke out in January 2020 to 3,04,58,251. This was 4.4% lower than Thursday’s count of 48,786 infections. The toll rose by 853 to 4,00,312.
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