Covid-19 vaccination: Pregnant women to be given Covaxin in special drive

Health department officials said that using Covaxin Covid-19 vaccine will ensure faster vaccination cycle for pregnant women and decrease the chances of them getting infected in the interim period between the two doses

The district health department will conduct a dedicated Covid-19 vaccination drive for pregnant women at 37 session sites on Tuesday, wherein doses of the Covaxin vaccine will be administered, officials said on Monday. This will be in addition to vaccinations at the usual session sites and the door-to-door vaccination drive.

On Monday, 14,208 people were given the Covid-19 vaccines in the district, with 3,703 people being administered the first dose and 10,505 being given the second dose of the vaccines. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

“We have chosen Covaxin for this drive as through this vaccine, we can ensure that pregnant women get their first and second doses of Covid-19 vaccine faster during their pregnancy term. If a woman gets infected with coronavirus during pregnancy, then there could be chances of premature delivery with the baby’s weight being less than 2.5 kilograms. In some cases, the risk of fatality also increases, due to which we want to make sure that pregnant women are vaccinated faster,” said Dr MP Singh, the district immunisation officer.

Singh said that if a pregnant woman, unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, gets infected with Covid-19, they will receive the remaining doses only after the delivery. For this drive, 7,400 doses of the vaccine will be available on Tuesday, with 3,700 for each dose. This is the second time that a dedicated vaccination drive is being conducted for pregnant women in the district.

In addition to this drive, vaccination will continue at the 43 fixed vaccination sites across the district on Tuesday, officials said. The first and second doses of Covishield will be administered at 36 centres, while the second dose of Covaxin will be administered at five centres. Sputnik V vaccines will be administered at the Sector 31 polyclinic, while door-to-door vaccinations will be carried out at 196 localities on Tuesday.

On Monday, 14,208 people were given the Covid-19 vaccines in the district, with 3,703 people being administered the first dose and 10,505 being given the second dose of the vaccines.

Meanwhile, in anticipation of the third wave of Covid-19 infections and augmenting health infrastructure, the state health department has sought feasibility reports from 11 districts, including six districts of south Haryana, for construction of 50-bed Covid-19 hospitals adjacent to the district Civil Hospital, as part of the Central government scheme in this regard.

Rajeev Arora, the health secretary for the state, said, “Our first focus is to increase the pace of vaccination across the state with different methods, such as vaccination at fixed sites, door-to-door vaccination, special drives; but we also have to prepare in case there is a third wave of Covid-19. During the festive season, we saw that the vaccination pace was slow and people have also become more relaxed as cases have come down. But we are conducting surveys to understand the bed capacity in different districts and increase it as per the need.”

Arora said that the chief minister is scheduled to conduct a review meeting on Friday with all deputy commissioners to take stock of the vaccination status and health infrastructure.