RISHARD KHAN
rishard.khan@guardian.co.tt
The country has recorded seven maternal deaths of which four were from COVID-19. This is according to the Director in the Directorate of Women's Health, Dr Adesh Sirjusingh.
This represents an increase in maternal fatalities locally which, since 2017, stood at roughly four.
According to statistics presented by Dr Sirjusingh on Monday, 1,002 pregnant women contracted the disease locally as of December 3, 2021. The majority of these infections, 944, occurred this year. A total of 279 of these cases were recorded since October, during this third wave of infections.
Dr Sirjusingh added that there have been four instances of transmission from a COVID-19 positive mother to the child.
Outside of these instances, he said there have been several occasions where COVID-19 led to complications in pregnancy such as pre-term births and still births.
Dr Sirjusingh reminded women that being pregnant places them at high-risk for an adverse outcome from COVID-19 which is why it is important they get vaccinated. He said the majority of the cases of pregnant women contracting COVID-19 were among the unvaccinated.
