There has been an increase in pregnant women hit by COVID-19 in Bacolod City.
“We have 15 pregnant women who are in our isolation facility now,” City Administrator Em Ang said Thursday, April 29.
Pregnant women are tested for COVID-19 because all patients admitted at the City Health Office (CHO) Lying-in Clinic must be negative prior to admission, Ang, who is also the executive director of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), said.
“Close and skin-to-skin contact with patients during childbirth is inevitable for healthcare workers at the Lying-in Clinic. Thus, it is necessary to know whether they test positive or negative (for COVID-19), so that clinic staff can take precautionary measures,” Ang said.
Pre-admission testing will not only protect healthcare workers, but also the mother and her newborn child, she said.
The Bacolod Respiratory Outpatient (BRO) Center, located in front of the Public Plaza, offers free COVID-19 RT-PCR tests for pregnant women. The BRO Center is open Mondays to Sundays for swabbing services.
Most of the pregnant women who tested positive for COVID-19 were asymptomatic, Dr. Chris Sorongon, EO Deputy for Medical Data and Analysis, said.*