Vaccination for pregnant women and Lactating Mothers began in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Government has started vaccination drive for the pregnant women in various parts of the State on Friday, 16 July’21. State Health Director Bijay Panigrahi informed that a special feature has been incorporated to the CoWIN portal for both pregnant women and lactating mothers through which they can book slots on the website for vaccination at their nearest PHCs. They can go for on-the-spot vaccination as well.

As per the data, Odisha consists of around 10 lakh pregnant women. “We are going to get the exact information about the number of pregnant women and lactating mothers are there to be vaccinated by this evening. Every year around 9 lakh pregnant women register themselves to get different kinds of benefits under various Government schemes. At least 4 lakhs will be vaccinated in the first phase,” Panigrahi cited.

The state government has released a set of guidelines pertaining to the processes of vaccination for the unvaccinated pregnant women. They will be provided with all information about the risks of COVID infection during the time of pregnancy and the benefits of vaccination as well as the probable side effects of vaccines before inoculation.

The ANMs and ASHAs in the villages or localities will be playing a pivotal role in counselling and mobilising the women and on the scheduled date and time of the vaccination. There will be specially dedicated waiting rooms available at all vaccination centres so that they don’t need to stand in queue with other people. All pregnant women, who will be vaccinated are likely to be observed for 30 minutes for AEFI to examine incase of any post – vaccination effect is shown. The pregnant women can be vaccinated at any time of their pregnancy.

-OdishaAge