Kerala launches ‘Mathru Kavacham’: Everything to know about COVID-19 vaccination programme for pregnant women

Vaccination for pregnant women: The southern state of Kerala has ramped up its coronavirus vaccination drive by launching a special vaccination programme called “Mathru Kavacham” for inoculation of pregnant women. Under the programme, which began on Friday, all district hospitals would be provided with vaccinations, and in the beginning, the COVID-19 vaccine would be administered to 100 pregnant women via spot registration. The state also said that over the coming days, more vaccine doses would be provided to district hospitals, depending on the availability of vaccines with the state.

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Earlier this week, news agency ANI had cited Kerala Health Minister Veena George as saying that all the pregnant women would be registered for vaccination at the ward level under the programme with the help of ASHA workers, adding that those women who are capable of registering on their own would be encouraged by the state authorities to do so, so that ASHA workers would be able to help those who did not have the facilities of smartphones or computer.

George added that the health workers would try to ensure that all the pregnant women were registered and vaccinated, further saying that special vaccination camps would be conducted on special days for them. This, she said, would be done to avoid pregnant women getting in contact with other people who would visit for vaccinations, since pregnant women are at a heightened risk of severe COVID-19 infection. It also had the capability of affecting the baby’s health, she said.

The Centre had recently accepted the suggestion of expert groups and said that pregnant women could get COVID-19 vaccine administered. George has now said that the vaccine could be administered to pregnant women at any stage of pregnancy, with it being safer to administer both the doses while expecting.