Officials in Los Angeles have warned of increasing number of pregnant women becoming infected with the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) and being hospitalised.
Dr Marlon Mills, the Director of Maternal Fetal Medicine at Hoag, said “doctors are now seeing a higher proportion of pregnant women among their COVID-19 patients, including five who required admission to the intensive care unit.
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“Los Angeles County reported 81 cases of coronavirus infections among pregnant women for the week that ended July 25, triple the rate from the last full week of June.”
Mills said pregnant women were at increased risk of having respiratory illness and needed to be sedated and required the insertion of a breathing tube in their throat.
He added that “there is also an increased risk of premature birth and a complication called preeclampsia, which can be caused from a COVID-induced inflammation of the placenta.
“The U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention strongly recommends pregnant women get vaccinated for COVID-19,” he noted.
According to mills, pregnant women have a far higher risk of serious complications, hospitalisation, needing ICU care and dying because of COVID-19 compared with women who are not pregnant.
Los Angeles County public health officials said in a statement on Monday that less than one-quarter of pregnant women are at least partially vaccinated. More than 11,000 pregnant women in the county have tested positive.
The officials said “although rare, women infected during their pregnancy can pass on the virus to their newborn.
“Among the 10,998 births where there was testing information, 55 infants tested positive for COVID-19, while 12 per cent of pregnant women who tested positive have tragically passed away.”
