A one-day-old infant in East Baton Rouge Parish dies after being prematurely born due to complications stemming from her mother’s COVID-19 case.
EBR Coroner Beau Clark says the child’s death is being counted in the parish’s total COVID fatalities because without the viral infection it’s likely the infant would have been born without issue.
“Had she not been COVID-19 positive, not required ventilator support, had not had the shortness of breath and hypoxia that is associated with the virus, it is likely that she would not have gone into pre-term labor,” says Clark.
He adds this is the first such case in Louisiana, but similar incidents have been reported nationwide.
The baby will be tested for coronavirus, but Clark says it’s not clear yet whether the virus is vertically transmissible.
“That’s when a mother can be infected by a bacteria or virus that is then transmitted through the placenta to the unborn child,” says Clark.
Clark says the CDC is in contact with the hospital where this occurred to collect data on whether the child itself was infected.
Pregnant women are considered a COVID-19 high-risk group, and Clark says that’s because COVID symptoms can be a serious threat to fetuses.
“When you develop these respiratory symptoms they can create hypoxia, which is a low oxygen level, that low oxygen level can then be transferred on to the child inside the womb who then is not getting enough oxygen, and things get very precarious in that situation,” says Clark.
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