Pregnant women with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infections were likely to be older, whiter and more educated as the pandemic unfolded, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday.

The CDC analyzed federal data linked to birth certificates issued in 14 states and the District of Columbia from July 2020 to June 2022. According to the report, the share of those pregnant ages 30 and older with COVID increased from 38.4% in the third quarter of 2020 to 48.9% in the second quarter of last year.

Over the same period, the share of infected pregnant women with at least a bachelor’s degree jumped from 14.2% to 35.4%. The share of infected moms paying for child delivery with private insurance rather than Medicaid increased from 30.7% to 58.2%.

White moms replaced Hispanic moms as the majority of those infected, surging from 25.1% of them to 58.2% during the study period.

The demographic changes appeared during a period when new COVID strains emerged and infections grew more widespread.

“Different variants and changing prevalence of COVID may have contributed to the trends shown,” CDC statistician Michelle Osterman, a co-author of the report, told The Washington Times. “However, this dataset does not include other related factors that may have contributed to these trends.”

The CDC report is significant because it reveals that women with COVID during pregnancy were likelier to be White than women without COVID during pregnancy for much of the pandemic, she added.

“Given the increased risk of poor outcomes among births to women with COVID during pregnancy, it is informative in the study of birth outcomes during this time,” Ms. Osterman said.

• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.