Mathrukavacham: Vaccination drive for pregnant women to begin from July 16 in Kerala
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala government's campaign -- 'mathrukavacham' -- to vaccinate all the pregnant women in the state against COVID-19 infection will be inaugurated at the district level here on July 16.
The inaugural function will be held at the Thycaud Women's and Children's Hospital in the presence of the District Collector, the health department said on Thursday.
Spot registrations for vaccination of pregnant women would be carried out at various government hospitals in the state capital, a release said.
It also said that COVID vaccination for pregnant women will be made available in all hospitals in the coming days depending on the availability of the vaccine.
Pregnant women can receive the COVID vaccine at any time during their pregnancy, it added.
State Health Minister Veena George, on July 12, had announced that the government would be starting a campaign for vaccinating pregnant women.
Under the initiative, Asha workers will register the details of all pregnant women in the ward level.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the state received 2,49,140 doses of COVISHIELD vaccine, George said in another release.
On Thursday, 1,49,434 people in the state were vaccinated at 1,234 vaccination centers.
So far, a total of 1.63 crore people have been vaccinated with one or two doses across the state.
Of these, 1.18 crore were given the first dose and 44,01,477 were given the second dose, it said.