Wearing face masks to stop the spread of coronavirus should not be a political issue, Fauci says

Pregnant women could be at higher risk of being admitted to a hospital’s intensive care unit or even needing ventilation if they are infected with the coronavirus, a researcher at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday.

This new information, which has not yet been released, contradicts some previous research that suggests that pregnant women may not be at greater risk of becoming ill enough to need ICU treatment if they catch the coronavirus.

For example, pregnant women are much more susceptible to the flu.

Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, there has been limited data on what risks pregnant women could face with Covid-19 – if any – but now the new information Oliver presented at the ACIP meeting is helping to add to the scientific literature. The data should be released in a CDC report on Thursday.

By numbers: The report includes data on 326,335 women aged 15 to 44 who had a coronavirus infection between Jan. 22 and June 7, Oliver said. 8,207 pregnancies were recorded among women.

“This new report includes the largest U.S. group of pregnant women with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection,” Oliver said in his presentation. “Among pregnant women, 31.5% were reported as hospitalized compared to 5.8% of pregnant women.”

“Pregnant women were 50% more likely to be admitted to the intensive care unit and 70% more likely to receive mechanical ventilation. Sixteen deaths were reported among pregnant women, in a similar proportion as non-pregnant women,” Oliver added.

Oliver noted that a separate analysis previously found that the risk of admission to the ward and mechanical ventilation was actually lower in pregnant women with coronavirus and that there was no statistically significant difference in the risk of death in hospital – so more research is needed.

“More complete data are needed to assess whether SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy is associated with adverse pregnancies or neonatal outcomes,” Oliver said.

“However, the results of this study suggest an increased risk of admission to the ICU and mechanical ventilation, which are different approximate signs of severity, in pregnant women compared to pregnant women,” Oliver said. “However, the absolute risk of clinical interventions in this population is still very low.”