Why pregnant women in India still are not eligible for COVID-19 vaccines
Government concerns about safety mean expecting mothers can't get shots. But some doctors are raising alarms about pregnant women's increased risk of severe disease and death.
On June 21, most people in India 18 years and older became eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine for free—but that still doesn’t include women who are pregnant.
India’s second wave has caused one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in the world, with the virus killing more than 390,000 Indians to date, according to official estimates. While there’s no government data on how many pregnant women in the country have had COVID-19, anecdotal reports suggest the number is at least in the thousands, with the situation being far worse in rural areas due to poor testing and a lack of treatment. (See how COVID-19 is ravaging rural India.)
The government recently approved vaccines
