Stillborn foetus in Israel very likely to have died of Covid, doctors say

A medic collects a swab sample from a traveller at a booth at the COVID-19 coronavirus rapid testing centre in Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport

Credit: AFP/AFP

A stillborn foetus in Israel was highly likely to have died from coronavirus, Israeli doctors said on Tuesday, amid concerns that pregnant women risk passing on the disease in utero.

The 29-year-old mother was in her 25th week of pregnancy when she was admitted to hospital with Covid-19 symptoms and said she had not felt the foetus moving, according to Israeli media reports.

"The foetus was infected through the placenta and, [we say] with a very high degree of certainty, died due to coronavirus,” Dr Tal Brosh,  the head of the infectious disease department at Assuta Hospital, told the news website Ynet.

Dr Yossi Tobin, the head of the maternity ward at the same hospital, agreed that the evidence suggested the foetus had succumbed to coronavirus.

"This is a rare occurrence because a baby is usually infected with coronavirus after birth, as a result of contact with the mother. The fact that we were able to find out that they were already positive in the womb indicates a high probability that [the fetus] died as a result of coronavirus," Dr Tobin said.

It is the first known case of a foetus dying from coronavirus in Israel, while similar incidents have also been reported in Brazil. 

A health worker of the Maccabi Health vaccination centre administers a dose of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine

Credit: Jack Guez/Jack Guez

Dr Brosh said the death could probably have been avoided if the mother had received a Covid jab. Pregnant women are allowed to receive the jab in Israel, as officials say there is "no evidence" that it poses any health risks. 

"If the mother had been vaccinated in the first or second trimester, this could have been avoided,” the doctor said.  Israel has given the first of two Covid jabs to nearly four million citizens, meaning that two thirds of the eligible population have been partially protected from the disease.

Nearly a third of the country’s 9.1m-strong population has received both doses.  The country is preparing to further reopen its economy this Sunday, when Israelis will be allowed to visit gyms, cultural events and swimming pools if they provide proof of vaccination. 

On Tuesday, Palestinian leaders in the West Bank claimed that Israel had refused to allow a batch of Russian Covid vaccines to continue its journey into Gaza.  The Palestinian Authority, based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, had planned to send the Russian Sputnik V doses through Israel to Gaza, which is run by the Islamist movement Hamas.

Israeli officials said they had received a request to transfer 1,000 vaccine doses to Gaza but denied they had blocked the delivery, saying that the request was still being processed.