Study: Few pregnant women testing positive for virus
NEW HAVEN — Fewer than 3 percent of women admitted to three Yale New Haven Health hospitals for labor and delivery who did not have symptoms of
COVID-19 tested positive for the disease, according to a new study.
The research, published as a letter Tuesday in JAMA, involved
770 women who had not been tested for the disease. They were admitted to Yale New Haven, Bridgeport and Greenwich hospitals in April.
Just 30 of the patients tested positive, and 22 of those had shown no symptoms when admitted to the hospital.
The study’s authors said the results show that normal precautions of surgical masks, gloves and gowns are adequate when caring for mothers-to-be who do not have symptoms of COVID-19. Medical staff who care for patients with COVID symptoms must wear N95 respirator masks and other personal protective equipment not normally worn, according to a press release.
“Our report provides reassuring information on infection rates and appropriate hospital responses outside of highly endemic areas,” said Dr. Katherine H. Campbell, medical director at Yale New Haven Hospital’s labor and birth and maternal special care units, in the release.
“Not only have we provided insight into the nature of a positive test, we’ve highlighted how a comprehensive testing program can reduce the use of personal protective equipment among labor and delivery staff without increasing their risk of exposure,” she said. Campbell was a corresponding author of the study.
A similar study undertaken at two New York City hospitals, where the coronavirus has been more highly prevalent than in Connecticut, found that 13.5 percent of asymptomatic pregnant women tested positive for COVID-19.
The study did find the number of women without symptoms who tested positive increased tenfold during the study, but those who had symptoms decreased by half, the release said.
Dr. Christian Pettker, chief of obstetrics at Yale New Haven Hospital and an author of the study, said those findings were positive, because patients who have recovered from COVID-19 can test positive for up to six weeks afterward.
“Given our data, we think that a large number of the asymptomatic patients who test positive might not actually be actively infected or infectious,” he said in the release. “This requires more research but has very important implications for patients who test positive who then might have to be isolated and separated from their babies.
“From a patient standpoint, this actually might be even more newsworthy than the point that labor units are much safer than has been reported,” he said.
Several counties north of New York City entered the first phase of the state’s four-part reopening process Tuesday after Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the region had met criteria for reopening including declining deaths and hospitalizations linked to the coronavirus.
The region now easing restrictions includes Westchester County, the area where New York’s first major outbreak of the virus happened in early March.
There have been more than 1,300 deaths so far in Westchester County and nearly 500 in the nearby Rockland County. Both of those suburban counties have had more fatalities per capita than Manhattan, where restrictions are expected to stay in place at least into June.
New York City and Long Island are the only regions in the state that have yet to begin the first phase of reopening, which includes retail with curbside pickup.
Traders cheered as Gov. Andrew
Cuomo rang the opening bell of the Stock Exchange, which had been closed since March when the state shut down in the face of the virus. Under rules put in place to prevent a resurgence, traders will be required to wear masks and stay 6 feet apart. Anyone entering the exchange will be asked to avoid public transportation.
“We will respect the sacrifices of frontline workers and the city at large by proceeding cautiously, limiting the strain on the healthcare system and the risk to those who work beneath our roof,” NYSE President Stacey Cunningham wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.