32 babies born in Odisha Covid-19 hotspot have no symptoms: Officials

Officials said as pregnancy boosted the risk of serious disease from respiratory viral infections, they were apprehensive of the pregnant women testing positive for Covid-19.

Officials in Odisha’s Covid-19 hotspot of Ganjam have said 32 babies have so far been born to infected mothers in the district but the infants do not any symptoms of the coronavirus disease.

A baby is seen in this file photo. Vijay Amrita Kulange, Ganjam’s district collector, said while 57 pregnant women had delivered in the Covid hospital, only 32 were diagnosed with Covid-19. (Bloomberg)

Vijay Amrita Kulange, Ganjam district collector, said while 57 pregnant women had delivered in the Covid hospital, only 32 were diagnosed with Covid-19. The rest were housed in quarantine centres, but shifted to Covid hospital as the centres don’t have facilities for childbirth. “All the mothers have now recovered from infection and are healthy,” said Kulange.

Officials said as pregnancy boosted the risk of serious disease from respiratory viral infections, they were apprehensive of the pregnant women testing positive for Covid-19.

“Viral infections can be severe in pregnant women as the immune system is geared toward making sure not to create any immune response against the baby. So the mother’s immune defence system is partly compromised,” Dr J Parida, a Bhubaneswar-based immunologist, said.

According to officials, 88 Covid-19 positive pregnant women have delivered babies during the pandemic with only one baby contracting the viral disease. While Ganjam accounted for 32, Balasore accounted for 15. All the mothers have recovered from the viral disease after undergoing treatment at various Covid hospitals in the district.

Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik took to Twitter on Friday to express his happiness over the delivery of healthy babies from mothers diagnosed with Covid-19.

Meanwhile, the situation in Ganjam seems to be gradually improving with the sample positivity rate going below 15 from over 70% last month. The district has reported 14,122 cases so far from one lakh samples tested.

A sero-survey to measure the Immunoglobulin G in the blood of people in Berhampur town of Ganjam district by the Regional Medical Research Centre found that as much as 31% have developed antibodies to Covid-19. The antibody formation is likely to be much higher now as the survey could measure the antibody formed 14 days ago.

Besides, the recovery rate in the district increased from 68.8% on August 1 to 82.2% on August 12.