Routine child immunizations in India during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT: Disruptions in health service delivery and utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic may have caused many children worldwide to not receive vital preventative health services. We investigate the pandemic's effects on routine childhood vaccinations in India, which has the world's largest child immunization program. Using data from the Government of India's health management information system and interrupted time series analyses, we estimate district-level changes in routine child vaccinations during the pandemic relative to typical monthly vaccinations in the pre-pandemic period. Our results indicate there were significant reductions in child vaccinations during the pandemic, with declines being extremely large in April 2020 when a strict national lockdown was in place. For example, distric

SUBMITTER: Chakrabarti A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10014501 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature