Newborn baby infected with COVID-19 in Sweden

A newborn infant confirmed with COVID-19 was likely infected in the mother's womb, Swedish medical journal Dagens Medicin reported Tuesday, making it the first known case in Sweden where a baby has been confirmed infected with the novel coronavirus immediately at birth, reported Xinhua.

The newborn is now being treated at the Skane University Hospital, in the southern Swedish city Malmo, where the head of pediatric surgery and neonatal care Elisabeth Olhager told Dagens Medicin that the baby was likely infected during the pregnancy.

The mother was confirmed infected before giving birth, Dagens Medicin reported, but the infant displayed none of the symptoms typical in small children with COVID-19, such as a cough, fever or fatigue.

Olhager told Dagens Medicin that there was no need to change any routines at the hospital, despite suspecting that the disease was transferred from mother to infant.

"There have been significantly more deliveries in the Stockholm region and elsewhere where the mother was infected but where no such transmission has been established, as far as I know," Olhager said. "So I do not think we need to change anything after just one case."

The case is also rare in an international context as there have been just a few reported instances of babies being infected with COVID-19 during pregnancy. A British study published in medical journal Lancet Child & Adolescent Health in July followed 116 pregnant women with confirmed COVID-19 and none transmitted the disease to the child during pregnancy, according to the Swedish Television report.