79 per cent of pregnant women who died due to COVID-19 last year were not vaccinated - Health DG

KUALA LUMPUR: Seventy-nine percent of the 191 deaths due to complications of COVID-19 infection among pregnant women last year comprised those who did not receive the vaccine injection.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said of all the deaths involving pregnant women reported since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country, 83 per cent were those with comorbidities.

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

"The high vaccine coverage of 94.7 percent for those age 18 and above has been achieved in October 2021 and this contributed to the decrease in maternal mortality due to COVID-19 complications," he said in a post on his Facebook page.

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

-- BERNAMA