Singaporean gives birth to baby with COVID-19 antibodies: report

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A Singaporean woman, who was infected with the novel coronavirus in March while pregnant, has given birth to a baby with antibodies to the virus, offering new clue as to whether the infection can be transferred from mother to child.

The baby was born this month without COVID-19 but with antibodies to the virus, the Straits Times newspaper reported on Sunday, citing the mother. bit.ly/33I0liL

“My doctor suspects that I transferred my COVID-19 antibodies to him during my pregnancy,” Céline Ng-Chan told the newspaper.

Ng-Chan had been mildly ill with the illness and was discharged from hospital after two and a half weeks, the Straits Times reported.

Ng-Chan and the National University Hospital (NUH), where she gave birth, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The World Health Organization says it is not yet known whether a pregnant woman with COVID-19 can pass the virus to her fetus or baby during pregnancy or childbirth.

To date, the active virus has not been found in samples of fluid around the baby in the womb or in breast milk.

Chinese doctors have reported the detection and decline over time of COVID-19 antibodies in babies born to women with coronavirus disease, according to an article published in October in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Transmission of the novel coronavirus from mothers to newborns is rare, doctors from New York-Presbyterian / Columbia University Irving Medical Center reported in JAMA Pediatrics in October.