MUMBAI BEGINS VACCINATING PREGNANT WOMEN IN A SPECIAL DRIVE AT 35 CENTRES

Amid massive vaccine crunch in the financial capital, a special drive is initiated by BMC to vaccinate pregnant women against Covid-19. Pregnant women get vaccinated at 35 designated centers in Mumbai. As per the directions of the Union health ministry, the BMC on Wednesday issued guidelines for vaccination of pregnant women. There are 12 special centres to function in the city and 13 will be open in western suburbs while 10 vaccination centres in eastern parts of the city.

According to the information provided by the Public Health Department, pregnant women are more likely to have a severe infection with Covid-19 than other women. Also, pregnant women with Covid-19 have a higher rate of preterm delivery. Around 90% of pregnant women affected by Covid-19 do not need to be hospitalized.

“We have trained our staff to vaccinate pregnant women. The staffers will inform them about all aspects of the vaccines and they can make an informed choice,” said Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani.

An estimated 1.5 lakh pregnant women will benefit from this. Women who have developed Covid-19 or have been treated with monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma can get vaccinated after 12 weeks. After vaccination, some may experience mild fever, pain at the injection site, or feel unwell for 1 to 3 days.

Meanwhile, the unavailability of doses in the ongoing mass immunization programme has sparked concerns about staving off the third wave effectively and reviving economic activities, many of which are dependent on vaccination as per the state’s unlock guidelines. The stock of Covid-19 vaccination in Mumbai is drying up quickly. Inoculation drive in Mumbai has been a very challenging task here for the people as Mumbai has a very limited stock of covid-19 vaccines and people are standing in long queues without social distance to get the jab. The Centre government has been told to states to share indicative demand for vaccines. But on the other hand, more states are now complaining about vaccine shortage. For the past several days, it has been noticing that due to the shortage of vaccines people are not getting the slots.