AP Govt to Vaccinate Women With Kids Below 5 Years

Jun 09, 2021, 10:45 IST

In the wake of a COVID-19 third wave likely to affect children, the Andhra Pradesh government is slated to vaccinate all mothers having children aged below 5 years as a precautionary measure. State Medical and Health Principal Secretary Anil Kumar Singhal on Monday had made this announcement while addressing the media after a Covid review meeting chaired by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and other health department officials' was conducted.

It was observed that in case children are infected with coronavirus, their mothers would also have to stay with them at hospitals. Keeping their health in mind the State Government has taken the decision to inoculate mothers with kids under the age of 5 years.

There are almost 20 lakh such mothers, in the state and they will also be inoculated along with those aged 45 plus years, Singhal said.

The State government has also constituted a committee to take preventive action on the third wave of COVID-19 which would submit a report on the number of paediatric COVID cases.

This was to ensure the state preparedness to handle paediatric cases in the third wave, so that the ICU beds, paediatric beds, ventilators, medicines for kids and children, masks and other requirements to treat children and kids should be kept ready in advance, ordered the Chief Minister.

The Chief Minister said that paediatric wards should be set up in all hospitals, measures should be taken for treatment of children at primary health centres (PHCs) and local area hospitals, and paediatricians be recruited according to the need.

More than 600 private hospitals have been permitted to treat COVID-19. Keeping the third wave in mind, chances of treatment of paediatric cases, special paediatric wards, and other basic infrastructure in those private hospitals will be considered.

The Chief Minister has also directed the construction of three paediatrics multi-speciality hospitals - one in Visakhapatnam, two in Vijayawada or Guntur and three in Tirupati.

Advance tokens will be issued to beneficiaries by ANM/ASHA with the details of the Vaccination centre with the date and time in it as mentioned in a tweet in Arogya Andhra.

In view of the third wave, the Government of #AndhraPradesh has decided to vaccinate all the mothers having children below 5 years. Advance tokens will be issued to beneficiaries by ANM/ASHA with the details of the #Vaccination centre with the Date and Time in it#APFightsCorona pic.twitter.com/67YefRiKPp

— ArogyaAndhra (@ArogyaAndhra) June 9, 2021