Vaccination for mothers of children under 5 years of age

The state government has decided to give priority to vaccinating women with children under the age of five, as a third wave of COVID-19 could sweep across the country in the next few months.

Anil Kumar Singhal, Chief Secretary for Health, Medicine and Family Welfare, said in a news conference that there are over 20 lakh mothers across the state in the said category and they are allowed to be vaccinated along with anyone in the 45+ age group, the vaccine is currently under available in the state.

Mr Singhal said 11% of the state’s population are children and teenagers under the age of 20. Of them, 2.72% are in the 0-10 year old age group and 8.35% are in the 11-20 year old age group, he said. .

Similarly, 20.28% of the state’s population is in the 21-30 age group, while 21.29% of the population is in the 31-40 age group, he said. Mr Singhal said pediatric infrastructure across the state is being expanded to prepare for the likelihood of a third wave in which children would be most at risk.

Mr Singhal said all district collectors have been asked to make arrangements to vaccinate women who are mothers of young children, adding that 600 private hospitals have allowed them to be vaccinated.

Black mushroom

Meanwhile, the number of cases of mucormycosis (black fungus) in the state has risen to 1,623. Mr Singhal said the central government has so far provided 13,105 amphotericin B injections, of which 1,225 were available while the rest were in use.

“The state government has ordered 91,650 amphotericin B injections and has already bought 12,250 posaconazole injections and 1.01 lakh posaconazole tablets. The state has 68,543 tablets available, ”he said.

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