79% of pregnant women who died of Covid-19 last year were unvaccinated, says health DG

Seventy-nine percent of the 191 deaths due to complications of Covid-19 infection among pregnant women last year comprised those who had not received a vaccine injection.

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said of all the deaths involving pregnant women reported since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country, 83% had comorbidities.

However, no deaths involving pregnant women due to Covid-19 were reported between January and Feb 15 this year, he added.

“A high vaccine coverage of 94.7% for those aged 18 and above was achieved in October 2021 and this contributed to the decrease in maternal mortality due to Covid-19 complications,” he said in a Facebook post.

He said a total of 18,277 cases of Covid-19 infection among pregnant women were reported from March 2020 to January this year.