Outcomes of Pregnant and Post-Partum Patients Admitted to the Intensive Care Unit With COVID-19 in Australia: An Analysis of SPRINT-SARI Australia

Aust N Z J Obstet Gynaecol . 2025 Jun;65(3):372–381. doi: 10.1111/ajo.13908. Nearly 7 million deaths have resulted from infection with the novel coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2, COVID-19), and risk is reducing due to established treatments and less virulent strains. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared in May of 2023 that COVID-19 was no longer a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, and risk does remain for subgroups of individuals with elevated risk of severe disease. Pregnant women may be one group of people whose risk is elevated; physiological changes during pregnancy can increase susceptibility to diseases that affect the heart and lungs, and how the body’s immune response is triggered. In Australia, there is limited data that evaluates the impact of changes that prioritized COVID-19 vaccines for pregnant women, and about the overall incidence and severity of COVID-19 in pregnant individuals. This study was designed to describe peripartum women with COVID-19 who were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), with the hypothesis that outcomes would differ compared with nonpregnant women of the same age.