Health COVID-19 Operation front liners have successfully assisted a pregnant mother in quarantine to deliver her baby with no breaches to Infection, Prevention and Control (IPC) standards set in place for such incidents.
As part of COVID-19 preparedness, such scenario was also anticipated and thus, protocols to assist pregnant women giving birth in quarantine or at the National Referral Hospital (NRH) was developed.
In this case, the labour progressed rapidly therefore health workers had to assist the delivery in quarantine station and later moved the mother and her baby to NRH isolation ward for further monitoring and management, as they are yet to fulfil the quarantine days and COVID-19 tests.
In assisting the delivery process, all health workers, doctor and mid-wife were in full Personal Protection Equipment (Level 3 PPEs), which includes, full body cover, face -masks, gloves and feet cover.
Both processes of wearing and removal of PPEs were done with strict observation by IPC personnel on site to detect any breaches to IPC standards.
After operation risk assessment for the health workers to assess any possibility of contracting potential COVID-19 virus from the mother and baby was extremely low.
Nevertheless as per the protocols in place to ensure zero risk to the communities, all health workers engaged in the operation are being accommodated at the Honiara Hotel away from their families and communities.
The mother arrived in Honiara on board repatriation flight on the 22nd of December and as per the entry requirement, fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Since arrival, she tested negative twice for COVID-19 with final test conducted yesterday.
Once the final test results is negative, both the mother and the baby will be scheduled for graduation from quarantine today (Wednesday 5th of January), which is day 14 of quarantine.
Both the mother and her baby are medically stable and doing well at NRH Isolation ward.
Source: MHMS Media