Maternal and neonatal outcomes of pregnant women with COVID-19 pneumonia: a case-control study

Na Li; Lefei Han; Min Peng; Yuxia Lv; Yin Ouyang; Kui Liu; Linli Yue; Qiannan Li; Guoqiang Sun; Lin Chen; Lin Yang

In December 2019, an outbreak of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) associated pneumonia was reported in Wuhan, a mega city with an 11 million population in central China, and soon spread to other cities in China and overseas [1] . The causative pathogen was identified as a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) [1] . As of 06 March 2020, COVID-19 has caused 80,735 confirmed cases in China, of whom 3,045 died and 5,737 were admitted into ICU [2] . In response to this fast-spreading epidemic, the Chinese government has locked down the epicenter Wuhan city since 23 January 2020, and implemented a series of social distancing measures such as strict traffic restrictions, forbidden social gatherings, closure of residential communities [3] . The epidemiological data showed that most cases had mild symptoms, and overall case fatality rate was 2.3%. Although the virulence of SARS-CoV-2 seems considerably lower than two previous zoonotic coronaviruses, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, it was far more efficient to transmit between close contacts. [4] Particularly, this novel coronavirus has caused special concerns in pregnant women, because both SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV have been found to cause severe complications in pregnant women [5] . Several reports on suspicious vertical transmission of this virus have further increased such concerns [6] . Although the recent laboratory studies and clinical reports did not find strong evidence to support a vertical transmission route, the possibility still cannot be completely ruled out [7] [8] [9] .