This is a summary, written by members of the CITF Secretariat, of

Results from COVID-19 VACCINATION DURING PREGNANCY IN ONTARIO, Report 4, posted at https://www.bornontario.ca/en/whats-happening/resources/Documents/COVID-19-Vaccination-during-pregnancy-in-Ontario_Report_third-dose_FINAL.pdf

The results and/or conclusions contained in the research do not necessarily reflect the views of all CITF members.

Among people who were pregnant in Ontario in March 2022, 81.3% had received one or more doses before or during pregnancy, according to a non-peer-reviewed report by the Better Outcomes Registry & Network (BORN) Ontario study, led by CITF-funded researcher Dr. Deshayne Fell from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and the University of Ottawa. In comparison, 86.5% of eligible Ontarians over the age of five had completed their primary vaccine series (2 doses). Since April 2021, pregnant individuals have been recognized as a high-risk population for COVID-19 complications. Nonetheless, vaccine coverage among these individuals remains lower than in the general population.

The report is presented on the BORN web site and is not peer-reviewed.

Key Findings:

  • Among people who were pregnant in March 2022:
    • 6% had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine before or during pregnancy.
    • 9% had received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine before or during pregnancy.
    • 8% had received three doses of COVID-19 vaccine before or during pregnancy.
    • 7% still had not been vaccinated.
  • Among people who were pregnant in March 2022, COVID-19 vaccine coverage across Ontario’s Public Health Regions ranged from 79.4% to 87.5%.

The report points to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that used BORN information system data to explore outcomes for over 95,500 pregnant individuals and newborns following COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy. Encouragingly, vaccinated individuals had no increased risk of complications and their babies did not have higher rates of hospitalization or adverse outcomes when compared with individuals who were not vaccinated during pregnancy.

Since late April 2021, pregnant people in Ontario have been prioritized for COVID-19 vaccination as part of Phase 2 of the COVID-19 vaccine program implementation, due to the higher rates of COVID-19 hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and death compared with non-pregnant individuals. The data in the report refers to vaccine coverage among individuals who were pregnant between December 14, 2020 and March 31, 2022.