DCPCR chief advises pregnant women, lactating mothers be brought under COVID-19 vaccination process

Delhi Commission For Protection Of Child Rights chairman Anurag Kundu has written to the Union Health Secretary urging him to include pregnant women and lactating mothers under the coronavirus vaccination process.

Currently, they are excluded from the COVID-19 vaccination drive because of a lack of clinical trials data on the effect of coronavirus vaccine on these two groups.

“Annually, 2.6 crore women give birth, and another 2.6 crore are lactating mothers. This makes 5.2 crore women who are left out, a critical population both in numbers and their vulnerability priority. World-over maternal death due to Covid-19 is emerging as a concern,” he said in a tweet on Thursday.

In the letter, he has advised that pregnant and lactating mothers be categorised as a high-risk group and setting up of a task force to track and monitor effects and evolve SOPs.

He has also suggested that there should be proactive communication to educate everyone to ensure informed consent.

A registry for pregnant women and lactating mothers being vaccinated should be created so that a continuous monitoring mechanism can exist to see if the vaccine has an adverse effect on pregnant women and lactating mothers.

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