Pregnant women urged to get jabbed amid rise in infections

ISTANBUL

Turkish experts are urging pregnant women to get the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible, as new data suggests a worrying rise in COVID-19 hospital admissions among unvaccinated pregnant women across the country.

Many unvaccinated pregnant women have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and have applied to hospitals recently, said Seval İzdeş, an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) specialist at the Ankara City Hospital, stressing once again on the importance of vaccines.

Noting that some pregnant women avoid getting vaccinated for fear of harming their babies, the expert stressed that those expectant mothers put themselves in a very risky situation and even lose their lives at a young age only for this reason.

Stating that nearly 90 percent of the patients treated at the intensive care unit are unvaccinated and they experience the disease severely, İzdeş underlined that the vaccinated patients usually overcome the symptoms of COVID-19 in a mild way.

“Unfortunately, too many pregnant women have applied to the ICU recently,” İzdeş said, adding that the mortality rate started to increase among pregnant patients.

The Turkish Reproductive Health Association underlined recently that pregnant women experience COVID-19 infections more severely, citing data in June from the World Health Organization (WHO).

“For example, we lost a pregnant patient last night. She was 23 years old and 24 weeks pregnant,” İzdeş stated, noting that everyone, including pregnant women, must get vaccinated.

The health institution also recommended that couples planning on having a baby should get the coronavirus vaccine.

The group said no significant adverse effects from the shots on pregnant women have been observed.

Turkey has administered more than 92.71 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since launching a mass immunization campaign in January, according to official figures released.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s Health Minister Fahrettin Koca suggested that all citizens take a look at the COVID-19 figures released every day, stating that it will help them remember neglected measures.