New Delhi, April 19 One of the saddest news on Sunday shocked the country as a 45-day-old baby died of the highly infectious novel Coronavirus at Lady Harding Hospital here.
The infant who died on Saturday early in the morning, has become the youngest casualty in the country. Additionally, 6 health workers have tested positive for the virus and more than 30 have been quarantined.
A hospital source told that a 45-day-old baby was kept in the COVID dedicated ward. The baby was not born at Lady Harding Hospital, and had come from outside.
"I am not aware what condition he was in, when he was brought to the hospital and how long he was there because he was admitted directly to the dedicated COVID ward in the hospital. We have made a separate facility for new born which is for the babies who are born in the hospital. This baby was beyond the neonatal period," said the source, adding "this makes a total of two infants in our hospital who have tested positive for COVID 19. Of which this baby has expired."
The source also said, there are six healthcare workers who have tested positive including 2 doctors, 3 nurses and one lab technician.
"Around 30 staff members from the pediatric department have been quarantined but none of them has tested positive as of now. However, they are still under observation. A team of healthcare workers from the adult department has also been quarantined as it was looking after a patient who had died earlier. But the exposure in the pediatric department was bigger. Contact tracing in health care workers is underway. The pediatric ward is being sanitized," the source said.
Speaking about the due procedure to be followed for case management of COVID-19 among infants, the source said, "There is not much clarity on the infant care during COVID because not much has been seen in our country, so there is less data on that. Every country is handling this pandemic situation according to their own system and situation.
"Therefore their ways of managing cases are also drastically different. One country said the newborn should be separated from the mother for 14 days and one room with one dedicated nurse should be given to them. Such logistics are not even available in our country.
"Another country has said that the baby should be with the mother and both should be taken care of. We will have to see what suits us," the source added.
( With inputs from IANS )