UGANDA – In a government campaign, pregnant women are being urged not to put off getting their Covid jab or booster.

According to the UK Obstetric Surveillance System, more than 96 percent of pregnant women admitted to hospital with Covid symptoms between May and October of last year were unvaccinated.

The campaign will use radio and social media to share testimonies from pregnant women who have received the vaccine. According to the government, the vaccine is safe and has no effect on fertility.

Pregnant women were added to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization’s priority list for the vaccine in December, citing a higher risk from Covid.

According to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), one in every five pregnant women admitted to hospital with the virus needed to be delivered prematurely to aid their recovery, and one in every five of their babies required care in a neonatal unit.

Mothers-to-be who have been offered the Pfizer-BioN-Tech or Moderna jab since April 2021 have received one dose, and more than 80,000 have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine since then, according to the department.

At the start of the UK vaccine program, it was recommended that pregnant women be offered vaccines if they were in a high-risk group or were at high risk of exposure.

Since then, approximately 84,000 pregnant women have received one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, and over 80,000 have received two doses, according to the department.

At the start of the UK vaccine program, it was recommended that pregnant women be offered vaccines if they were in a high-risk group or were at high risk of exposure.

In the international front, pregnant women in the United States have some of the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the country.  This is according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, which shows only about 31% of pregnant women aged 18-49 had been immunized against the disease as of late September.

At 15.6 percent, black pregnant women had the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rate, compared to approximately 35 percent of white pregnant women, 25 percent of Hispanic pregnant women, and 45.7 percent of Asian pregnant women.

From January 2020 to late September 2021, the CDC reported over 125,000 cases of COVID-19 among pregnant patients, resulting in over 22,000 hospitalizations and 161 deaths.

Pregnant women were excluded from early COVID-19 vaccine trials, so even though they were eligible for COVID-19 vaccination, evidence-based guidance lagged.

Despite growing safety data and daily headlines about avoidable deaths, misinformation remains a significant barrier to convincing pregnant women to get immunized.

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