© AP
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Source: BELGIAN
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English chief obstetrician Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent is urging her colleagues to encourage more pregnant women to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. Currently, many pregnant women are not vaccinated, but a recent study by the University of Oxford showed that they can develop worse symptoms when confronted with the delta variant of the virus.
“The Covid-19 vaccine can keep you, your baby and your loved ones safe and out of the hospital,” reads the open letter from Dunkley-Bent, the head of the obstetrics service at the National Health Service (NHS). She asks pregnant women to take steps “to protect themselves and their babies”.
An Oxford University study last week found that 99 percent of pregnant women hospitalized with the virus have not been vaccinated. Ten percent of hospitalized pregnant women require intensive care.
Deltavariant
“It is very good news that so few vaccinated pregnant women have been hospitalized with Covid-19,” said Professor Marian Knight, who led the study. “But it is very worrying that the number of hospitalizations of pregnant women with Covid-19 is increasing and that they appear to be more severely affected by the delta variant.”
In order to increase the vaccination coverage among the rest of the population, ‘pop-up’ injection sites are also being set up in the English regions. For example, passers-by and spectators can have themselves vaccinated at a tent full of jugglers and acrobats from Circus Extreme in Halifax.
Festivals
Also festival visitors sometimes don’t have to walk far to get an injection. A vaccination site is being established on a bus at the Summer of Love Festival in London. Sports enthusiasts can report to the Burnley FC stadium in Lancashire for a vaccination.
In England, about 87 percent of adults have had at least one shot, but the young adults are lagging behind. Nearly a third of British people in the 18-29 age group have not yet been vaccinated at all.
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