Extremely Preterm Infant Admissions Within the SafeBoosC-III Consortium During the COVID-19 Lockdown

Rasmussen, Marie Isabel; Hansen, Mathias Lühr; Pichler, Gerhard; Dempsey, Eugene; Pellicer, Adelina; EL-Khuffash, Afif; A, Shashidhar; Piris-Borregas, Salvador; Alsina, Miguel; Cetinkaya, Merih; Chalak, Lina; Özkan, Hilal; Baserga, Mariana; Sirc, Jan; Fuchs, Hans; Ergenekon, Ebru; Arruza, Luis; Mathur, Amit; Stocker, Martin; Otero Vaccarello, Olalla; Szczapa, Tomasz; Sarafidis, Kosmas; Królak-Olejnik, Barbara; Memisoglu, Asli; Reigstad, Hallvard; Rafińska-Ważny, Elżbieta; Hatzidaki, Eleftheria; Peng, Zhang; Gkentzi, Despoina; Viellevoye, Renaud; De Buyst, Julie; Mastretta, Emmanuele; Wang, Ping; Hahn, Gitte Holst; Bender, Lars; Cornette, Luc; Tkaczyk, Jakub; del Rio, Ruth; Fumagalli, Monica; Papathoma, Evangelia; Wilinska, Maria; Naulaers, Gunnar; Sadowska-Krawczenko, Iwona; Lecart, Chantal; Couce, María Luz; Fredly, Siv; Heuchan, Anne Marie; Karen, Tanja; Greisen, Gorm

Objective: To evaluate if the number of admitted extremely preterm (EP) infants (born before 28 weeks of gestational age) differed in the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) of the SafeBoosC-III consortium during the global lockdown when compared to the corresponding time period in 2019. Design: This is a retrospective, observational study. Forty-six out of 79 NICUs (58%) from 17 countries participated. Principal investigators were asked to report the following information: (1) Total number of EP infant admissions to their NICU in the 3 months where the lockdown restrictions were most rigorous during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, (2) Similar EP infant admissions in the corresponding 3 months of 2019, (3) the level of local restrictions during the lockdown period, and (4) the local impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the everyday life of a pregnant woman. Results: The number of EP infant admissions during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was 428 compared to 457 in the corresponding 3 months in 2019 (−6.6%, 95% CI −18.2 to +7.1%, p = 0.33). There were no statistically significant differences within individual geographic regions and no significant association between the level of lockdown restrictions and difference in the number of EP infant admissions. A post-hoc analysis based on data from the 46 NICUs found a decrease of 10.3%in the total number of NICU admissions (n = 7,499 in 2020 vs. n = 8,362 in 2019). Conclusion: This ad hoc study did not confirm previous reports of a major reduction in the number of extremely pretermbirths during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrial.gov, identifier: NCT04527601 (registered August 26, 2020), https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04527601.