Bhubaneswar: Vaccination for pregnant women began in Odisha on Friday.
State Health Director Bijay Panigrahi informed that a special feature has been added to the CoWIN portal for expectant mothers and lactating women and they can book slots on the website for vaccination at nearest centres. They also go for on-the-spot vaccination.
The state has around 10 lakh pregnant women.
“We will get to know the number of expectant mothers and lactating women to be vaccinated by this evening. Every year around 9 lakh pregnant women register themselves to get benefits under various schemes. At least 4 lakh will be vaccinated in the first phase,” he added.
The state government has issued a set of guidelines detailing the processes of inoculating expectant mothers. The pregnant women will be provided with all information about the risks of COVID infection in pregnancy and the benefits of vaccination along with the likely side effects of vaccines before inoculation.
The local ANM will counsel the women and ASHA will mobilise them on the scheduled date and time. Dedicated waiting rooms have been set up at all vaccination centres so that they don’t have to stand in queue with others. All pregnant women will be observed for 30 minutes for AEFI, if any, post-vaccination.
The cascade training of ANM, ASHA and Anganwadi workers and other health workers has been completed.
A pregnant woman, who opts for vaccination, can be vaccinated at any time of pregnancy
