COVID-19 Vaccination During Pregnancy in Ontario Report 1: December 14, 2020 to May 31, 2021

"Pregnant individuals are considered a high-risk population for COVID-19 complications, based on higher rates of COVID-19 hospitalization, ICU admission, and death compared with non-pregnant individuals. 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. Even prior to April, Canada and many other countries recommended not withholding COVID-19 vaccination for pregnant people in early priority groups, such as health care or other frontline workers, therefore, COVID-19 vaccination was already being administered during pregnancy prior to late April, but less frequently.

With support from the Public Health Agency of Canada, through the Vaccine Surveillance Reference Group and the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, the Better Outcomes Registry & Network (BORN) Ontario is evaluating COVID-19 vaccination in pregnant individuals in Ontario. As a prescribed Registry under the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA), BORN collects extensive clinical data on all pregnancies and births in Ontario from over 250 hospitals, birth centres, midwifery practice groups, and screening labs (www.bornontario.ca). This report describes COVID-19 vaccine uptake during pregnancy using data extracted from the BORN Information System (BIS) on June 3, 2021, linked with Ontario Ministry of Health’s COVaxON application, which was extracted on May 31, 2021 (additional methodological details are provided in the Appendix). Results in this report will be updated on a regular basis as new data become available." - The Better Outcomes Registery & Network (BORN) Ontario