Ontario hospitals urge pregnant women to get vaccine, cite infant COVID admissions

A group of Ontario hospitals is urging pregnant women to get vaccinated against COVID-19, citing recent infant hospitalizations due to the disease.

Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, McMaster Children’s Hospital, the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and Kingston Health Sciences Centre made a joint statement on the issue Wednesday.

“No one wants their little one to be sick in hospital, let alone for COVID-19,” the statement said. “For this reason, as well as for the health of the pregnant individual, we are encouraging anyone who is pregnant and eligible for vaccination — as well as all eligible members in their household — to get vaccinated.”

The group said six babies younger than 12 months have been admitted to Hamilton and Ottawa facilities because of COVID-19 since the middle of December.

“Previous to that, it was a rare occurrence that an infant was hospitalized for COVID-19 infection,” the statement said.

All infants admitted to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa had unvaccinated mothers, the statement said.

The group of hospitals said infants’ immune systems have difficulty fighting disease especially without maternal antibodies transferred during pregnancy from vaccination.

Their statement cited research out of the Ottawa children’s hospital that has shown no adverse pregnancy outcomes in Ontario from COVID-19 vaccines. Despite that, the group said vaccination coverage has remained lower among pregnant people than the general population.

—The Canadian Press