Pregnant women added to high-risk virus groups
NEW YORK — The nation’s top public health agency Thursday revamped its list of which Americans are at higher risk for severe COVID-19 illness, adding pregnant women and removing age alone as a factor.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also changed the list of underlying conditions that make someone more susceptible to suffering and death. Sickle cell disease joined the list, for example.
The changes didn’t include adding race as a risk factor for serious illness, despite accumulating evidence that Black people, Latinos and Native Americans have higher rates of infection, hospitalization and death.
Agency officials said the update was prompted by medical studies published since CDC first started listing high-risk groups. They sought to publicize the information before Independence Day weekend, when many people may be tempted to go out and socialize.
“For those at higher risk, we recommend limiting contact with others as much as possible, or restricting contacts to a small number of people who are willing to take measures to reduce the risk of (you) becoming infected,” said CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield.
The same advice holds for people who live with or care for people at higher risk, Redfield added.
In the changes, CDC created categories of people who are at high risk and people who might be at high risk.
Those who are at high risk include people with chronic kidney disease, chronic inflammatory lung disease, obesity, serious heart conditions, sickle cell disease, Type 2 diabetes, and weakened immune systems because of organ transplants.
The threshold for obesity concern was lowered from a body mass index of 40 down to 30.
The CDC said people are at increasing risk as they get older, but it removed people 65 and older as a high risk group.
The list of people who might be at high risk includes pregnant women, smokers and those with asthma, diseases that affect blood flow to the brain, cystic fibrosis, high blood pressure, dementia, liver disease, scarred or damaged lungs, Type 1 diabetes, a rare blood disorder called thalassemia, and people who have weakened immune systems due to HIV or other reasons.