Like HIV and hepatitis, coronavirus cannot infect new born baby from mother, say experts

Like HIV and hepatitis, Covid-19 cannot transmit to the newborn babies even if the mother had tested positive for the deadly virus, as around 250 nCoV positive women were found to have delivered healthy babies in Tripura, doctors and experts said.

Agartala Government Medical College's (AGMC) Microbiology department head Tapan Majumder said that it is a very positive development that in India there has been no such instance found where the Covid-19 is being transmitted to the new born baby from the mother even though the coronavirus disease is a communicable disease.

During the two pandemic waves, since last year around 250 Covid-19 positive pregnant women have delivered healthy babies at the AGMC, Tripura's main Covid medical college and hospital.

He told IANS that before admission, all pregnant women are mandatorily undergoing Covid testing and if anyone is found with a positive case, due health protocols are being maintained.

Health officials in different northeastern states said that unlike in the first wave children below 15 years are also being tested for Covid-19 in reasonable numbers during the second wave in Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Meghalaya and Assam, forcing the governments of these states to constitute panels of paediatric doctors.

A total of 31 minor girls and eight caretakers at two orphanage homes in Tripura have recently tested positive for Covid-19 and most of them have already recovered from the infectious disease.

As the nature and intensity of the second wave of Covid-19 are diverse, physician Pradip Bhowmik has suggested forming study groups for an in-depth study of the disease.

Unlike in the first wave, a large number of young people and children are being infected by the coronavirus. In the second wave the recovery rate is very slow and the death rate is higher," Bhowmik told IANS.

He said that it is being observed that Indian strains of the virus are more dangerous then the UK and Brazilian variants.Bhowmik, who is an expert in Hepatitis disease and has worked on the disease in the northeastern states and Bangladesh, said that genetically tribals' immunity is always better but they are also falling prey to Covid-19, necessitating a serious study.

Of the 45.58 million populations of the eight northeastern states including Sikkim, tribals constitute around 29 per cent of the total populace.