19-year-old Cameroonian delivers first baby born to a COVID-19 patient

A pregnant 19-year-old Cameroonian, who tested positive for COVID-19 and was in isolation, has delivered a baby girl. This is the first known baby delivered to a coronavirus patient. The doctors were swift and adhered to all precautionary measures during the delivery.

According to Dr. Sone Charles, the patient started complaining about shortness of breath, but the health workers at the Central Hospital of Yaoundé did not discharge her. They tested her for the virus and after her results came out positive, they quarantined her, CNN reported.

The teenager went into premature labor while in quarantine on Saturday night and the doctors on duty rallied round the clock to protect the mother and her baby, Dr. Charles said.

According to the physician who led the team through the delivery process, Dr. Yaneu Ngaha, the whole process from labour to delivery took about an hour and everything was under control with no complications.

 “It was quite fast. The baby came out and we separated her from the mother, who did not touch the child,” Ngaha said. “We wore protective jackets and the mother also wore a mask.”

Dr. Nhaha added that the mother and baby are in good condition and that the baby needed to be tested for the virus, as well as, a precautionary measure.

So, 14 hours after delivery, samples were taken from the infant for testing and the hospital is yet to receive her test results.

“The baby has been transferred to the neonatal unit and kept in an incubator because she is premature, weighing about 2,000 grams. We check her temperature three times per day,” Ngaha told CNN.

Cameroon is currently dealing with about 650 cases of COVID-19 just within a month of reporting its first case, according to the World Health Organization.

Erick Tandi with the Public Health Emergency Operations Center in Yaounde said the reason for the increasing number of cases can be attributed to the recalcitrant behaviour of people, who have blatantly decided to elude mandatory quarantine directives.

“When the Minister of Public Health announced, before the closing of borders, that those who have come from abroad within early March should quarantine themselves in their homes — this was not respected fully,” Tandi said.

“That is the result of the community Covid-19 cases we are having now,” he added.

The rebels have also been asked by the UN to adhere to the global ceasefire so that people can move to testing locations without much fear of being caught up in an attack.