MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/. Pregnant women can be vaccinated against COVID-19 only during the third trimester, said Alexander Gorelov, Deputy Director of the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor).
"Vaccination can be carried out only during the third trimester of pregnancy, when all organs and [organ] systems of the baby have already been formed," he said in an interview with the Govorit Moskva radio station on Friday.
The expert cited Israel as an example, where anti-coronavirus vaccination was mandatory. All pregnant women vaccinated during the third trimester gave birth to healthy children with antibodies protecting them against COVID-19.
According to the Russian Health Ministry’s temporary guidelines on COVID-19 vaccination, pregnant women from high-risk groups can be inoculated only after week 22.
On June 25, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said that taking into account the positive results of the pre-clinical safety trials of the vaccine and the accumulated data on its safety and efficiency during the post-registration trials, experts have decided to allow the use of Sputnik V among pregnant women. The minister explained that this allows pregnant women who have a high risk of developing severe symptoms of the disease to get vaccinated.