CDC revises list of those at high risk for coronavirus, now includes pregnant women

The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions has revamped its list of high-risk Americans for COVID-19 to include pregnant women and change the age factor for contracting the virus.

The CDC, the country’s top public health agency, also changed the list of underlying conditions that make someone more susceptible to infection and death. 

Sickle cell disease was added to the list and the threshold for risky levels of obesity was lowered, accorded to the Associated Press.

However, the CDC didn’t add race as a risk factor for serious illness, despite evidence that African-Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans have higher rates of infection, hospitalization and death.

Agency officials said the update was the result of medical studies published since the federal agency started listing high-risk groups, amid the pandemic beginning in March. 

The CDC previously said those at high risk of serious illness included people 65 and older; residents of nursing home or long-term care facility; and people with serious heart conditions, obesity, diabetes, liver disease, chronic kidney disease, chronic lung disease, and conditions that leave them with weakened immune systems, the wire service also reports.

The agency said people are at increasing risk as they get older, but it removed those 65 and older as a high-risk group.

The list now 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.