Baby girl born prematurely to woman with COVID-19 dies

Hospital in Tiberias doesn’t give a specific cause of death but say girl’s condition worsened and she required bowel surgery

By ToI Staff 22 April 2020, 1:54 pm

Edit

Illustrative: Magen David Adom workers and a Shaare Zedek hospital medical team, wearing protective clothing as a preventive measure against the coronavirus in Jerusalem on April 2, 2020. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

A baby born prematurely to a woman infected with the coronavirus has died, the hospital where she was being treated said Wednesday.

The baby, along with her twin sister, was being treated at the neonatal intensive care unit at Baruch Padeh Medical Center in Tiberias after their mother gave birth last week.

The hospital said the twins were tested twice for COVID-19 and both sets of tests came back negative.

No reason was given for the cause of the baby’s death, but the hospital said her condition worsened Tuesday and that she required surgery on her bowels.

There was no word on the condition of the other baby.

The mother was released last week from the hospital with mild symptoms to recover at home.

Sheba Medical Center’s COVID-19 maternity unit (Courtesy)

There have been numerous cases in Israel of mothers sick with the virus giving birth and a special COVID-19 maternity ward has been established at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan.

None of the babies born to these mothers have contracted the coronavirus.

The youngest person in Israel to so far be diagnosed with COVID-19 was an eight-day-old baby whose mother also tested positive for the virus.

Almost all of those who have died from COVID-19 in Israel have been elderly and suffered from preexisting conditions, according to hospital officials.

As of Wednesday, there have been 14,326 confirmed coronavirus cases in Israel and 187 deaths.