One-day-old baby girl dies after her covid-positive mom on a ventilator goes into premature labor in Louisiana
- The newborn became Louisiana's youngest victim yet on Monday, officials said
- East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner Beau Clark blamed COVID-19 for the death
- 'Likely she would have not gone into preterm labor', he said of the mother
- Clark said the mother was admitted to a hospital on April 1, and remains alive
- Louisiana's coronavirus caseload grew Monday to nearly 15,000 people with confirmed infections; the death toll rose by 35 from a day earlier to at least 512
- Half of all pregnant women infected with the novel coronavirus deliver their babies early and they may even pass the disease to their newborns, studies find
A one-day-old baby girl has died after her mother contracted coronavirus and went into premature labor.
The newborn became Louisiana's youngest victim yet on Monday after her mom was placed on a ventilator, officials there confirmed.
In a daily briefing Monday East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner Beau Clark said: 'The baby, because of the extreme prematurity did not survive.'
He blamed the mother's COVID-19 disease for putting her into labor, adding: 'Likely she would have not gone into preterm labor and there would have been a different outcome. This is an incredibly sad case.'
The girl survived only one day, and the coroner said both he and Louisiana's state epidemiologist agreed that she belongs in the state's grim coronavirus death toll.
Clark said the mother was admitted to a hospital on April 1, and remains alive. He provided no details about her condition, and no identifying information.
He added: 'The child as of now has not tested positive for COVID-19, however, the mother was, and in speaking with the state epidemiologist, we all agree, myself included and the doctors involved in the care, that this would be a COVID-19-related death because of the positive nature of the mother in this scenario.'
'The baby, because of the extreme prematurity did not survive,' said East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner Beau Clark, who blamed the mother's COVID-19 disease for putting her into labor
Cindy Morris, left, and Swarnamala Ratnayaka don personal protective equipment before the begin to prepare RNA for testing for the COVID-19 virus at the molecular pathology lab at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans last Thursday
Louisiana's coronavirus caseload grew Monday to nearly 15,000 people with confirmed infections, about 12 per cent of whom are hospitalized
He added: 'Had she not been COVID-19 positive, had not required ventilator support, had not had the shortness of breath and hypoxia that's associated with the virus, likely she would not have gone into pre-term labor and there would have been a different outcome.
'You hope that this would never happen here in our state, but it has and we're certainly left dealing with that issue.'
This premature baby wasn't the first U.S. newborn to die in similar circumstances, he added.
Louisiana's coronavirus caseload grew Monday to nearly 15,000 people with confirmed infections, about 12 per cent of whom are hospitalized.
With health officials warning that New Orleans area hospitals could soon be overwhelmed, the state Monday opened a makeshift 'step-down' hospital at the city's convention center for people with less severe symptoms who don't need a ventilator or an intensive care unit bed.
Gov. John Bel Edwards has ordered schools closed, limited restaurants to takeout and delivery and shuttered businesses deemed nonessential such as gyms, hair salons and bars through the end of April.
As testing capacity grows, Louisiana officials are getting more data about the extent of the virus's footprint in the state.
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Medical workers screen people seeking testing at a drive through testing center for the new coronavirus in New Orleans on Thursday, April 2
A view inside the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center as they prepare for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients in New Orleans, Louisiana on April 5
The state health department has been able to report more than 69,000 test results so far. The results of thousands of other tests are still pending from commercial labs, hospitals and small testing sites, the department said.
Louisiana and the New Orleans area have been an epicenter for the virus, and Gov. John Bel Edwards has repeatedly warned of looming shortages for ventilators and intensive care units.
In an interview on CNN Sunday, Edwards said the New Orleans area is expected to exceed its ventilator capacity around April 9 and ICU bed capacity days later.
More than 10,000 Americans have now died from the coronavirus and the number of infections increased to over 347,000 - as new data predicts the outbreak in the US will peak in 10 days with over 3,000 deaths in 24 hours.
The death toll in the United States increased by 1,147 overnight to bring the total number of fatalities to 10,358.
The number of confirmed cases across the country increased by 25,841 to bring the infection total to 347,516.
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