Sunday, June 7, 2026
Sunday, June 7, 2026
Pregnant mom dies from COVID in Trinidad
Daily Express – Trinidad and Tobago has logged its first COVID-19 maternal death and the first case of transmission from mother to child.
This according to Dr Adesh Sirjusingh, Director of women’s’ health at the Ministry of Health, who speaking at a COVID-19 news conference on Monday announced that one mother has since passed away after delivery due to COVID-19 complications.
“Unfortunately, I have the sad news to announce that within the recent past, we actually lost our first mother after she delivered, to COVID-19 in Trinidad and Tobago as a result of the complications of COVID-19. We have reached that place which we are seeing worldwide where maternal deaths are being reported,” he said.
Sirjusingh added that pregnancy remains a high-risk category with persons over the age of 35, with varying comorbidities at an even higher risk of contracting the virus. Persons in the second half of pregnancy are more likely to be admitted to the ICU and HDU with increased risk of sickness or death.
While fetal effects and transmissions of the virus, he said, were rare.
“In this case so far we have not seen any direct fetal effect of fetal anomalies and transmission to the baby is very rare but purported in the scientific literature…With respect to pregnancy itself, COVID-19 increases your risk of preterm delivery, hospitalization and may have a possible heart complication as a result of COVID acting on the heart. Breast feeding remains safe and highly recommended,” he said.
He said that several breastfeeding mothers have heeded the call to be vaccinated with the Sinopharm vaccine and thus far no complications among this group were observed. However, he urged the non-vulnerable population to be vaccinated for the sake of those who are vulnerable.
“We had one maternal death and one baby getting the transmission and you have 270 plus cases now of women who are pregnant who have gotten COVID. These are reasons why I am asking the general population to be vaccinated. These are the vulnerable persons we speak about every time, they cannot be vaccinated. If you are living in the household with your pregnant patient, please take the opportunity to go and get vaccinated now,” said Sirjusingh.
