The Jharkhand government will launch its maiden immunisation programme against pneumonia for infants in the second week of June for which over 77,000 doses of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) have been supplied to all 24 districts, officials of the health department said on Wednesday.

From June onwards, PCV will be a part of the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) in Jharkhand under which infants in the age bracket of 45 days to nine months will be vaccinated, Dr Siddharth Tripathi, the nodal officer for health department’s IEC wing said.

“This is the first time that Jharkhand will run an immunisation programme against pneumonia for children. At least three doses of the vaccine will be administered to children at the age of 45 days, three and-a-half months and nine months,” said Tripathi.

As per data shared by the health department, as many as 77,200 doses of PCV have been distributed among the 24 districts to run the immunisation programme and training for the vaccination campaign started in all the districts on Wednesday.

Jharkhand is currently conducting an Intensive Public Health Survey (IPHS), which will conclude on June 5, and the immunisation against pneumonia is likely to begin soon after, officials said.

As per data with the government, around 81,000 babies are born every month in Jharkhand and the programme will target immunisation of the babies that were born in the month of April.

The launch of the immunisation programme against pneumonia assumes significance as it is feared that a third wave of Covid-19 may affect children, said officials. In many cases, symptoms of pneumonia have been reported in children suffering from Covid-19 across the world and the immunisation may act as a protective shield for infants, sources said.

On Tuesday, the Niti Ayog cautioned that Covid-19 led to pneumonia in infected children, which may cause fast deterioration of health, especially the respiratory system. As per the state health department, it is feared that Covid-19 may affect around 7 lakh children in Jharkhand and about 45,000 of them may need hospitalization.

While there was no data available on the number of deaths caused by pneumonia in Jharkhand, figures with the United Nations highlight that India reported the second highest number of pneumonia deaths among children globally in 2018. As per the UN data, at least 127,000 children died of pneumonia in India, which was more than double the number of deaths that occurred in neighbouring Pakistan.

American vaccine manufacturer Pfizer has also started experimenting the effect of PCV along with Covid-19 booster jab in fully vaccinated adults, according to news reports. The aim of the study is to understand if a combination of the vaccines is safe, and the immune response after adding the pneumonia vaccine to the existing COVID-19 vaccine, Pfizer said.