Clinical characteristics and risk assessment of newborns born to mothers with COVID-19

Abstract

Background: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is causing an outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, and other international areas.

Objective: Here, we report the clinical characteristics of the newborns delivered by SARS-CoV-2 infected pregnant women.

Methods: We prospectively collected and analyzed the clinical features, laboratory data and outcomes of 7 newborns delivered by SARS-CoV-2 infected pregnant women in Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University during January 20 to January 29, 2020.

Results: 4 of the 7 newborns were late preterm with gestational age between 36 weeks and 37 weeks, and the other 3 were full-term infants. The average birth weight was 2096 ± 660 g. All newborns were born without asphyxia. 2 premature infants performed mild grunting after birth, but relieved rapidly with non-invasive continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) ventilation. 3 cases had chest X-ray, 1 was normal and 2 who were supported by nCPAP presented mild neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (NRDS). Samples of pharyngeal swab in 6 cases, amniotic fluid and umbilical cord blood in 4 cases were tested by qRT-PCR, and there was no positive result of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid in all cases.

Conclusions: The current data show that the infection of SARS-CoV-2 in late pregnant women does not cause adverse outcomes in their newborns, however, it is necessary to separate newborns from mothers immediately to avoid the potential threats.

Keywords: COVID-19; Clinical features; Mother-to-child vertical transmission; Newborn; Pregnant woman; SARS-CoV-2.

Fig. 1

Chest CT images of SARS-CoV-2 infected pregnant women. Transverse chest CT images from a 2019-CoV infected pregnant woman showing bilateral ground-glass opacities, stripe opacities and subsegmental areas of consolidation on day 8 after symptom onset (A–F).

Fig. 2

Chest X-ray images of 2 premature newborns with NRDS/. Chest X-ray images of 2 premature newborns (A, case 3, B, case 4) who showed mild respiratory distress at birth showing bilateral ground-glass opacities, granular high density shadows.