Premature newborn is Goa’s first to test positive for Covid-19

PANAJI: A baby born at the Covid hospital in Margao on Thursday is the state’s first to test positive for the novel coronavirus. The baby was born premature at 35 weeks.
“The baby was quickly taken to Goa Medical College (GMC) and hospital to prevent him from getting infected, but he tested positive and was taken back to the Covid hospital and reunited with his mother,” a doctor said.
“The pre-term issues are being managed at the Covid hospital itself.”
Thursday’s baby is the first child born to a Covid-positive mother to also test positive for the virus. Doctors said that the mother’s breast milk, filled with antibodies, will help the newborn fight infection. The previous two babies born at the Covid hospital both tested negative twice — first at birth, and then 48 hours later.
Meanwhile, the Covid hospital’s second baby, who was born on Monday, has also been reunited with her mother in the hospital.
The woman wears full PPE while breastfeeding the baby, and doctors say that the milk is providing the child with antibodies.
The first mother to deliver at the Covid hospital, as well as her baby, have since tested negative for Covid-19. Incidentally, all three mothers are from Mangor Hill, Goa’s first containment zone, and the first two delivered their children via C-section.
Until Thursday, the state’s youngest Covid-positive patient was a four-month-old baby, whose mother tested negative. She had travelled to Goa via train from Delhi.
Six of the thirteen children admitted in the Covid hospital’s paediatric ward were sent to MPT hospital Covid care centre on Thursday after they were found to be asymptomatic and doing well. “The Covid care centre is a step down from the Covid hospital,” a doctor said. “We are keeping the hospital ready for patients who really require it.”
The hospital’s paediatric ward has played host to several children since the state’s borders were opened. A one-year-old baby who travelled by road to Goa with her family was the first child to be admitted to the Covid hospital, followed by other rail and road passengers who tested positive with their siblings.