As Brazil nears 500,000 COVID-related deaths, health authorities are advising women not to get pregnant due to the high risk of complications for unvaccinated younger women.

Researchers in Sao Paulo, one of the worst-hit cities in the country, say the P1 variant has started infecting and killing pregnant women and their unborn children in startling numbers.

Currently 42 pregnant women die every week from COVID-19; many more women are being intubated and their premature children delivered by caesarean section without consultation with obstetricians, according to medical researchers at the Brazilian Obstetric Observatory.

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