Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) chairperson Anurag Kundu has written to the Union health secretary suggesting that pregnant & lactating women should also be vaccinated.
Currently, they are excluded from the Covid-19 vaccination drive because of lack of clinical trial data on the effect of the vaccine on them. DCPCR has advised the government to categorise pregnant & lactating mothers as high-risk groups & create a registry for their vaccination so that a continuous monitoring mechanism can exist to see if there are any adverse effects.
In his letter, Kundu wrote, “Each year, 2.6 crore women deliver children...add another 2.6 lactating mothers & we have close to 5.2 crore women left out of the programme. Clearly, this is a critical population, both in number & vulnerability.”
Kundu added that the
Centre for Disease Control (CDC) classifies pregnant women as being “at increased risk of severe illness from Covid-19 when compared with non-pregnant people”, & has recommended their vaccination.
Kundu said that “India administers a different set of vaccines & not the MRNA ones on which the CDC data is based. So, impact of the vaccines here is still not known due to lack of clinical trial data".
DCPCR has advised the government to form a working committee to look into the matter.
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