Around forty pregnant women are hospitalised for covid in Barcelona

BarcelonaIn the two reference hospitals in Catalonia for pregnant women with coronavirus there are 42 pregnant women admitted for covid. The data, given by Betevé, has been released the day after the Health minister, Josep Maria Argimon, appealed to pregnant women to be vaccinated. Argimon said that the benefits of acquiring antibodies to the virus are higher than the risk of complications from the vaccine or the risk of becoming seriously ill with covid if no protection to the virus is present.

According to current figures, confirmed by the ARA, in the Vall d'Hebron Hospital there are 34 pregnant women, of which 14 are in the intensive care unit (ICU) or in semi-critical condition. At the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu there are eight more pregnant women, two of whom are in critical care.

Pregnant women were not a priority group when planning vaccination because "they were not a risk group", but from the Department of Health they insist that they should receive the vaccine. The director of CatSalut, Gemma Craywinckel, has highlighted this again on Friday in an interview on Catalunya Ràdio, stating the vaccine also protects pregnant women "a lot". Although there are still no clinical trials of vaccines in this group, Craywinckel recalled that "there is clinical evidence" that the vaccine "has the same risk-benefit" for pregnant women as for the general population. On the other hand, there are studies on the risks of passing covid-19 during pregnancy. "A serious covid effect in a pregnant woman is very penetrating", said the director of CatSalut.

The features of the fifth wave

The fact that a call is made to pregnant women to get the vaccine has to do with the features of the fifth wave, which has raged especially among the young population and has exponentially increased infections in people under 40 - and among them, therefore, pregnant women. Argimon insisted on the importance that pregnant women are vaccinated, not only against covid but in general, and recalled that the World Health Organization also makes this recommendation, as well as the Ministry of Health.

In fact, the minister also directed the recommendation to women who are in the first and second trimester of pregnancy, although initially it was recommended to wait until the third trimester because it is then when the fetus is at less risk, since it is already more developed.