Nearly all pregnant women on ventilators with Covid haven’t had their vaccines as Brits urged to get boosted

NEARLY all pregnant women who have been placed on a ventilator with Covid-19 haven’t had their vaccines, data has revealed.

Vaccines help protect against severe illness from coronavirus and Brits have been urged to come forward for their initial jabs and booster doses in order to protect against Omicron.

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Omicron infections continue to spread and it is now responsible for 90 per cent of cases in the UK – but scientists have offered hope that the variant isn’t as dangerous as those that came before it.

A string of hugely positive studies show Omicron IS milder than other strains, with the first official UK report revealing the risk of hospitalisation is 50 to 70 per cent lower than with Delta.

Covid booster jabs protect against Omicron and offer the best chance to get through the pandemic, health officials have repeatedly said.

The Sun’s Jabs Army campaign is helping get the vital extra vaccines in Brits’ arms to ward off the need for any new restrictions.

Now experts have warned that pregnant women are putting themselves at risk by not having their vaccines.

At the start of the rollout of jabs, pregnant women had been held back from accessing the vaccines as there hadn’t been enough data on how it might affect them and their baby.

But now multiple studies show that the vaccines are safe and give mum and baby protection from the virus.

However, data shows that just 25 per cent of women have had their Covid jabs.

A report from the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre has revealed that more than 500 pregnant women, and those who have just given birth have been treated in intensive care over the last eight months in England.

The report spans from May this year, right up until Christmas Eve.

Of the 588 women admitted during this time – 118 ended up on a ventilator within 24 hours of being in hospital.

Sadly, 15 of those women died and 24 are still believed to be intensive care battling the virus.

The data shows that the average age of a pregnant women receiving care in an intensive care ward is 32.

The shocking figures come after a heartbroken father was told his 24-year-old daughter could have been saved if she’d had her vaccines.

David Exley said daughter Sadie, 24, fell gravely ill with the deadly virus in late November, before losing her battle earlier this month.

The mother-of-two, who was 29 weeks pregnant, was first diagnosed with a blood clot in her lung in October after suffering migraines and chest pain.

She caught coronavirus in November and was paralysed on one side as her body fought the disease, YorkshireLive reports.

Medics immediately transferred her into intensive care in Leeds. However, on December 3, Sadie suffered a brain haemorrhage, and couldn’t be saved.

Her son Elliot was delivered by caesarean section weighing just 2.1lbs.

It is just an awful situation when you see somebody in intensive care who is pregnant and being ventilated, because you know that if they had the vaccine it could have prevented it. It is almost always completely preventable.

Patrick O’BrienChairman of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists vaccine committee

Having a baby means that your immune system is compromised – which in turn can mean you are more vulnerable to infections, such as Covid-19.

While Omicron does seem to be a milder illness, it’s not yet clear what the impact on pregnant women will be.

Chairman of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists vaccine committee, Patrick O’Brien said: “Where you have women who are very sick with Covid and pregnant, they are almost all unvaccinated.

“We don’t know yet about what is going to happen in relation to the Omicron variant but what we have seen with other variants is that they are causing more severe disease in pregnant women.”

“It is just an awful situation when you see somebody in intensive care who is pregnant and being ventilated, because you know that if they had the vaccine it could have prevented it. It is almost always completely preventable”, he told the Daily Mail.

Dr O’Brien, who is also a gynaecologist at University College Hospital London NHS Trust said new mothers would be at heightened risk to Covid for up to six weeks after giving birth.

He said that this is because of the strain that being pregnant puts on the body.

A recent study of more than 350,000 deliveries found birth outcomes were the same in vaccinated and unvaccinated mums.

The UK Health Security Agency research shows being jabbed didn’t alter the risk of stillbirth, premature delivery or low birth weight.

But worryingly, only 22 per cent of women who gave birth in August had their Covid vaccine.