It’s strongly recommended that pregnant women get the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible.
Alberta Health Services says in August alone, six pregnant women in this province were admitted to the ICU because of the virus. It’s reported all of them were unimmunized and that COVID-19 had severe impacts on the health of the parent and child.
Five of the six cases were also pre-term births as early as 29 weeks. To put it into context, AHS says only seven pregnant women were admitted to ICU for COVID-19 during the entire first year of the pandemic.
AHS says COVID-19, particularly the Delta variant, is highly infectious, and pregnant individuals are at a higher risk of getting very sick. Women trying to get pregnant or who have recently delivered are also encouraged to get both doses.
A surge in COVID-19 ICU admissions over the weekend has set a new pandemic record in Alberta. Between Friday and Sunday, 29 additional COVID-19 patients were admitted to intensive care, for a total of 198 receiving treatment across the province.
That’s the highest we’ve seen, not just in this fourth wave, but in the entirety of the pandemic thus far. Another 4,740 people tested positive for the virus over the weekend.