Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on community-acquired neonatal pneumonia admissions to a tertiary care hospital during RSV season

Objective: Currently there is a conflicting data about the incidence of community-acquired infections with common respiratory viruses during the pandemics caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Method: This study compared patients who admitted to the pediatric emergency and neonatal outpatient clinics with upper and lower respiratory tract infection symptoms and were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit for community-acquired pneumonia during the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) season in pre-coronovirus disease (COVID) (October 2019 - March 2020) and post-COVID (October 2020 - March 2021) era. Results: A total of 869 patient records were screened. Of these, 70 patients (22%) in the pre-COVID era and 15 patients (6.8%) in the post-COVID era met the selection criteria and were included in the analysis. In the pre- and post-COVID era respectively, males accounted for 57.1% and 73.3% of patients (p>0.05), the mean gestational age at birth was 37±2 and 35±3 weeks (p<0.05), the mean birth weight was 3045±601 and 2386±840 g (p0.05), and the mean length of hospital stay was 9±3 and 7±1 days (p>0.05). RSV was detected in 42 (60%) patients in the pre-COVID era compared to 2 (13.3%) patients in the post-COVID era (p<0.05). Conclusion: Despite the comparable neonatal hospital admissions in both eras, a 3-fold decrease in hospitalizations due to community acquired pneumonia was observed in post COVID era. Strict compliance with the rules such as mask use, hand washing, and social distancing and lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic could explain the decrease in neonatal pnemonia.