Covid advice pregnant women.

The NHS is urging pregnant women to have a Covid jab because data shows they are many of the sickest patients.

Between July and September about one in six coronavirus patients being given extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (Ecmo) treatment were pregnant. Ecmo is used for patients whose lungs are so badly damaged by the virus that their blood must be taken from their body to be oxygenated by a machine. It is one of the highest forms of lifesaving treatment a person can receive.

Out of 118 people given Ecmo between July and September, 20 were pregnant. Of those 19 were unvaccinated and the other had had one dose.

Edward Morris, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said: “The disproportionate number of unvaccinated pregnant women in intensive care demonstrates that there is a significant risk of severe illness from Covid-19 in pregnancy.”

Out of all the women between the ages of 16 and 49 on Ecmo in intensive care, pregnant women accounted for about one in three between July and September, up from about one in twenty at the start of the pandemic.

From today’s Times.