IOG starts vaccinating lactating women thehindu.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thehindu.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The second wave of the pandemic has affected pregnant women much more severely than the first and also caused more maternal deaths, said the gynaecologists and obstetricians we interviewed across the country. But despite their heightened vulnerability, India’s vaccine policy does not allow pregnant women to be vaccinated and this needs to change, they said. The risks from Covid are far higher than the risks from vaccines, as we detail later.
No coronavirus vaccines for India s frightened mums-to-be
4 hours ago A health worker checks the body temperature of a passenger as she arrives with her child at a railway platform in Mumbai on Tuesday. AFP
Tanya Ashnigdh is four months pregnant and frightened, one of the millions of expectant mothers excluded from India s faltering vaccination drive despite being at greater risk from COVID-19.
In a country with one of the world s poorest-funded health care services, giving birth has always been fraught with risks and the devastating recent coronavirus surge has worsened the situation.
Ashnigdh, 31, lives in Muzaffarpur in India s poorest state Bihar. Like other cities, it has been ravaged by the pandemic, and the state s decrepit public hospitals have struggled to deal with the spike in cases.