CDC chief says pregnant women with coronavirus face greater risk

Pregnant women have an increased risk of contracting coronavirus than women who are not, Centers for Disease Prevention (CDC) chief Robert Redfield on June 25 said. In his address to media reporters, Redfield also urged states to step up their actions in containing the virus. This comes as coronavirus cases have surged to 2422310 with 124416 deaths in mainland America.

Elaborating further, the CDC chief asserted that those with pregnancy had little risk of death as compared to another woman. The organisation had reportedly found pregnant women who were admitted intensive care units were more likely to be put on mechanical ventilators. However, he said that as of now, the agency had no reports to determine how it affected pregnancy.

Urgent response needed

Speaking about infections in younger people, he said that it could be attributed to increasing diagnosis of the illness among youngsters whose member are less likely to be hospitalized than older people. Calling for a response to affected states, he also said that virus hotspots in the nation like Texas and Arizona were significant and a response was needed. As per reports, while New York and New Jersey have reported fewer infections, cases in South and West have been rising as restaurants and businesses reopened.

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The CDC chief also said that people with serious cardiovascular and kidney conditions, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, obesity, sickle cell disease, immunocompromised state from organ transplant and Type 2 diabetes were most at risk. Also at risk, but less so, were people with high blood pressure, Redfield added. 

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CDC, on June 25, also said more than 20 million Americans could have contracted the coronavirus, 10 times more than the official count. According to the senior officials, the new estimate suggests that many people might have or have had the infection without showing any symptoms.