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MOH official warns of serious COVID-19 cases among pregnant women

Side view close-up of pregnant woman touching her belly. Pregnancy health & wellbeing concept.
FILE PHOTO: Getty Images

SINGAPORE — Pregnant women are urged to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by medical authorities and there have been a number of serious cases of such infection among them, a senior Ministry of Health (MOH) official said on Friday (24 September).

At a virtual media conference by the multi-ministry COVID-19 taskforce, MOH Director of Medical Services Kenneth Mak said that a number of younger persons have been admitted to hospital for COVID-19 infection including several pregnant women.

Associate Professor Mak said some of these women have not been vaccinated during the course of their pregnancy for various reasons. This was likely due to a concern that the vaccine might affect their ability to get pregnant, or that it would harm the fetus.

But Prof Mak said this concern is not backed by real world data. “Pregnant women are at a higher risk of getting a more severe infection, and getting severe complications arising either involving the infection itself or the pregnancy. They are at a higher risk of needing ICU care and their risk of dying is also higher.”

The College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists within the Academy of Medicine, Singapore, and the Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society of Singapore have issued “very strong advice” for pregnant women to get vaccinated as soon as possible, he added.

“Unfortunately we have already seen some pregnant women in hospital and in the ICU (due to COVID-19 infection). We do not wish to see many more such cases here.”

At the conference, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said Singapore will start ramping up plans to be ready to handle 5,000 daily new COVID-19 cases amid an ongoing coronavirus surge here that is rising much quicker than projected.

Singapore is expected to hit 3,200 new cases in eight days' time as it enters the "fifth doubling cycle", said the taskforce co-chair.

His comments come after Singapore registered two consecutive days of record-high of new cases: 1,457 on Wednesday and followed by 1,504 on Thursday.

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