Pregnant women have now been brought under the vaccination protection net with the Government making a decision in this regard following recommendations from the NTAGI, a technical body of the Union Health Ministry.
The Ministry said that pregnant women may now register on CoWIN or walk-in to the nearest Covid vaccination centre to get themselves vaccinated. Iit had shared rules and procedures with States to roll out the programme, said the Ministry.
Until as recently as last month lactating women were eligible for the vaccine but pregnant women were not; the Government had said this was due to a lack of safety and efficacy data since clinical trials for vaccines do not typically include pregnant women as participants.
However, signalling a major policy shift that follows growing concern over exposure of expectant mothers (and their children) to the Coronavirus, the Union Health Ministry said last Friday that pregnant women “can and should” be vaccinated against Covid-19.
“The Health Ministry has given guidelines that the vaccine can be given to pregnant women. Vaccination is useful for them and should be given,” said Dr Balram Bhargava, Director-General of the Indian Council for Medical Research.
“Considering the current situation of pandemic, NTAGI-STSC 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 said in the minutes of its May 28 meeting.
Doubts were raised about possible risks to the mother and/or child - including that of clotting (or thrombosis) with the Covishield jab, but the committee decided “benefit far outweighs the risk”.
“... before vaccination, pregnant women should be fully informed that long-term adverse reactions and safety of vaccines for fetus and child (has) not yet (been) established,” it added.
Ahead of a third wave - which experts say is more than likely, particularly given the mutation of the virus - the government has been urged to increase the pace of vaccination and widen the vaccine net.