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Objective: To determine the clinical course and outcome of hospitalized pregnant patients with laboratory confirmed SARS CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection. Study Design: Prospective observational study. Place and Duration of Study: Obstetrics Unit of Pak Emirates Military Hospital (PEMH) and Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Rawalpindi, from May 2020 to Jun 2020. Methodology: All patients reporting for childbirth were tested for SARS CoV-2 and those testing positive were included. Demographic and reproductive profile including age, parity, occupation, contact and travel history, period of gestation at diagnosis and mode of delivery where applicable noted. The primary outcome was Virus clearance time and categorization according to severity of disease into asymptomatic, mild, moderate, severe and critical. Comparison was done between presence of co-morbid conditions and symptoms to category of COVID19. Neonatal sample evaluation for SARS CoV-2 was done. Results: Out of the 881 women giving birth 41 (4.6%) tested positive for SARS Cov-2. Majority were asymptomatic 28 (68.3%) followed by mild 08 (19.5%), moderate 04 (9.8%) and severe 01 (2.4%) category. There was significant association of COVID category with presence of symptoms (p-value <0.005) and comorbid (p-value <0.001). Mean virus clearance time was 8.2 ± 1.66 days. During hospital stay 34 (82.9%) delivered. All 34 (100%) of the delivered babies had no evidence of vertical transmission. Conclusion: Pregnant women with COVID-19 infection have nearly comparable clinical course to non-COVID women in this study. There is also no evidence of vertical transmission to the neonate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine the incidence of SARS CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection amongst women admitted for child birth and to categorize patients according to disease severity. Study Design: Prospective cohort study. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at Obstetrics Unit of Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Rawalpindi, from 1st May 2020 to 15 June 2020. Methodology: Pregnant patients reporting for childbirth were initially screened and tested for SARS CoV-2 using RT-PCR kits. Primary outcome was number of positive patients and categorization according to severity of disease into asymptomatic, mild, moderate, severe and critical. Screening parameters were symptoms like fever, cough, flu, myalgia, breathing difficulty, gastrointestinal symptoms, travel history and history of contact. Comparison was done between COVID category of asymptomatic and symptomatic patients. Results: Based on PCR testing out of the 525 women giving birth during the study period 43 (8.1%) was COVID positive. Out of the total screened patients 484 (92%) were a symptomatic and 41 (7.8%) were screen positive. 20 (48.7%) of screen positive were PCR positive too. According to disease severity 28 (65%) patients were asymptomatic, 10 (23%) mild, 4 (9.3%) moderate and severe (1%). COVID category for screen positive and negative patients was compared and was statistically significant for screen positive patients (p<0.0001). Conclusion: pregnant women with COVID-19 infection are a unique subset of patients. As majority of the patients were asymptomatic and only diagnosed with a positive laboratory test so the recommendation is to do universal testing in this pandemic to prepare for childbirth ina safe environment for patient, neonate and health care workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]