While the whole country is under a severe lockdown due to a novel coronavirus outbreak which has infected nearly 3000 till now in India, a woman who was diagnosed with COVID-19 has delivered a baby on Friday night. The woman is the wife of a senior doctor at AIIMS, Delhi, and he was also tested positive for Wuhan Coronavirus.
Reports say that both mother and the boy are healthy. However, they have been kept under isolation and being monitored continuously. This is the first baby to be born to a COVID-19 positive mother in Delhi.
“Both the mother and the baby are healthy. The baby was delivered a week early, through C-section. At present, the infant has been kept with the mother since he will require breastfeeding. So far, there is no evidence that the infection can be transmitted through breastfeeding. While the mother has tested positive for COVID-19, she is asymptomatic. We will be collecting samples of the infant too,” a senior doctor from AIIMS said.
According to the World Health Organisation guidelines, Women with COVID-19 can breastfeed if they wish to do so, but they need to take precautions. They should practice respiratory hygiene during feeding, should wear a mask where available. should wash hands before and after touching the baby, and the surfaces they have touched should by routinely clean and disinfected.
WHO says that they still do not know if a pregnant woman with COVID-19 can pass the virus to her foetus or baby during pregnancy or delivery. To date, the virus has not been found in samples of amniotic fluid or breastmilk, they say.
As per reports, the AIIMS doctor and his wife were confirmed positive of COVID-19 on Thursday. The senior resident doctor from the Physiology Department in AIIMS was posted at Emergency. The husband’s report came in the morning while the wife’s report came in the evening. She was 9 months pregnant who gave birth to a healthy baby on Friday night.
On Friday, the doctor’s brother also tested positive for the disease.
About 9 doctors in the National Capital Territory of Delhi have been infected by coronavirus so far. Two resident doctors of Safdarjung hospital were also tested positive of the novel COVID-19 on Wednesday. It was told that a doctor involved in the team treating the COVID-19 patients in the hospital were infected on duty. At the same time, in the postgraduate course in the Department of Biochemistry, a female resident doctor of the third year has also been infected.
She had recently gone abroad. Both showed symptoms of COVID-19 and their test report came positive two days ago. Both are being treated in a separate ward of Safdarjung hospital.
Meanwhile, 50 doctors across India have been tested positive of novel corona virus due to contact with patients and other reasons.
