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Wales’ Chief Medical Officer has urged pregnant women to take up their offer of a coronavirus vaccine.

It follows a rise in unvaccinated pregnant women being admitted to hospital with coronavirus.

Dr Frank Atherton said: “Covid-19 infection in pregnancy carries a significant risk of hospital admission. Whilst pregnant women appear no more or less likely to contract the virus, growing evidence shows that pregnant women may be at increased risk of severe illness if they get Covid-19 compared with the rest of the population, particularly in the third trimester.

“The Covid-19 vaccine can protect mums and babies from avoidable harm. We now have a lot of worldwide experience to know that the vaccine is safe and effective at all stages of pregnancy – women shouldn’t wait, take it as soon as possible whether planning pregnancy or already pregnant.”

Vaccinations for pregnant women have been recommended by both the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and the Royal College of Midwives.

Dr Atherton said he wanted to reassure expectant mothers that the vaccine “is based on science that has been used safely on pregnant women for many years” and pointed to vaccinations already used during pregnancy, such as flu vaccine and the whooping cough vaccine”.

He added: “The vaccine used is not a live vaccine, so cannot give you the virus.”

Dr Atherton also said the vaccine can be given at any time during a pregnancy, and urged people to contact their health board if they have not yet accepted their vaccine offer.

Meanwhile, Wales’ coronavirus booster vaccine campaign is now underway.

Who has been vaccinated so far?

The percentage of people in Wales who have received their first and second vaccine is broken down below:

Care home residents: 98.1% first dose; 95.8% second dose

Care home workers: 94.1% first dose; 91% second dose

Healthcare workers: 97% first dose; 95% second dose

Social care workers: 44,940 first dose; 44,305 second dose

Aged 80 and above: 96.2% first dose; 95.1% second dose

Aged 75-79: 97% first dose; 96.2% second dose

Aged 70-74: 96.3% first dose; 95.7% second dose

Clinically extremely vulnerable people aged 16-69 : 94.4% first dose; 92.2% second dose

Aged 65-69: 95.1% first dose; 94.2% second dose

Clinical risk groups aged 16 to 64: 90.5% first dose; 87.2% second dose

Aged 60-64: 93.5% first dose; 92.3% second dose

Aged 55-59: 91.8% first dose; 90.2% second dose

Aged 50-54: 89.9% first dose; 87.9% second dose

Aged 40-49: 84.9% first dose; 81.7% second dose

Aged 30-39: 78.1% first dose; 72.3% second dose

Aged 18-29: 77.3% first dose; 68.6% second dose

Aged 16-17: 69.9% first dose; 13.5% second dose

Source: Public Health Wales