COVID-19 vaccine can be given to pregnant women: ICMR DG
"The health ministry has given the guideline that vaccines can be given to pregnant women. Vaccination is useful for pregnant women and it should be given to them," said Dr. Bhargava.
By Newsmeter Network Published on 25 Jun 2021 1:50 PM GMT
New Delhi: The director-general of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Balram Bhargava, on Friday said that the COVID-19 vaccine can be administered to pregnant women.
"The health ministry has given the guideline that vaccines can be given to pregnant women. Vaccination is useful for pregnant women and it should be given to them," said Dr. Bhargava.
He also said that the government will start vaccinating children only after receiving all the data. "Whether very small children will ever need vaccines is still a question. Until such time when we have more data on vaccinating children, we won't be in a position to vaccinate children at large. We have started a small study on children between the age of two to 18 years and we shall have the results by September. However, the international jury is still not out and they're still debating whether children need to be vaccinated. We have seen some complications in the US," he said.
Pregnant and lactating women were initially excluded from mass vaccination drives. Later, Pfizer and Moderna's mRNA vaccines have been tested on pregnant animals and their babies and showed no additional health risks. In India, many experts believe the benefits of vaccinating pregnant women and their babies likely outweigh the risks.
Telangana on Friday reached a milestone after it administered more than one crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines. On Friday alone, the state administered 2,12,803 doses of vaccine to the citizens.
According to the CoWin dashboard, the state has administered 1,00,75,949 doses as of 5:45 p.m Friday. Of these, 86,27,127 are first doses while 14,48,822 are second doses.
Hyderabad administered the highest number of first and second doses - 19,21,059 and 3,11,745 doses, respectively. Meanwhile, Narayanpet district registered the lowest number of first doses, 42,221, and administered only 8,752 second doses.
