Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in the Obstetric Population at Admission: Results from a High-Volume Hospital Setting in the North of Italy

Abstract Based on the strong recommendation of the World Health Organization to implement testing for SARS-CoV-2, at our Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in northeast Italy we started performing universal screening in the obstetric population prior to hospitalization. All pregnant women admitted at our department were tests for SARS-CoV-2 with a nasopharyngeal swab test based on the specific SARS-CoV-2 sequences amplification with reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay. From April 10th to May 25th (45 days), 473 women were tested, and 2 (0.42%) out of 473 patients were found positive to SARS-CoV-2 during the first three weeks when the numbers of infection were higher and social contacts reduced. No patients reported either respiratory or gastrointestinal symptoms. After comparison with other reports, our results suggest a reduction in the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in the obstetric population related to both the trend over time and space of the infection spread and the effect of control measures. The identification of only asymptomatic patients appears supporting the implementation of universal screening instead of a test performed based on anamnestic information or symptoms to identify patients with SARS-CoV-2.