Stockholm, Jan 7 (IANS): A maternity ward of a Swedish hospital is fully occupied by women infected with Covid-19, state media reported

In its report, the Swedish Television (SVT) said that country has been hit by a surge of the Omicron variant, smashing the previous record of new confirmed cases in 24 hours by half. This is also reflected among pregnant women, reports Xinhua news agency.

"For the first time since the pandemic started, we have an entire maternity ward that are filled with women tested positive for Covid-19," the hospital in Sweden's second-largest city Gothenburg where the maternity ward is located said in a social media post.

SVT reported that almost all the 11 pregnant women who tested positive were unvaccinated.

"We already have a strained situation at the maternity ward. Now it gets even worse, as (for) delivering women wearing full protective equipment is a tough work environment," unit manager Shabnam Ronaghi told SVT.

"As a pregnant woman, you belong to a risk group, and not getting vaccinated is serious," she said.

According to the Public Health Agency of Sweden, pregnant women have a higher risk of becoming seriously ill with Covid-19, and an infection may also lead to premature delivery.

The agency therefore strongly recommends that expectant women get vaccinated.

Despite this, only 54 per cent of women who gave birth in December 2021 had received at least one dose of vaccine, the authority said in a report.

This compares to 85.9 per cent of the population aged 12 and older who had received at least the first dose till date.

The number of patients treated for Covid-19 at Swedish hospitals was approximately 930 on Thursday, an increase of more than 100 from the previous day, and 110 were in intensive care, SVT reported.

The Public Health Agency has confirmed that 75 per cent of the Covid-19 patients in intensive care were unvaccinated.

Since the pandemic started in early 2020, Sweden has reported 1,375,267 Covid cases and 15,326 deaths.