Covid-19 in the second half of pregnancy: prevalence and clinical relevance

Abstract Evidence on the prevalence and outcome of Covid-19 in pregnancy is yet inconclusive. To draw more information on this issue, we prospectively recruited 315 consecutive women delivering in a referral hospital located in Lombardy, Italy and evaluated the proportion of women who had Covid-19 in pregnancy. All recruited subjects underwent a nasopharyngeal swab to assess the presence of Sars-Cov-2 using Real-time PCR. In addition, two different type of antibodies for the virus were evaluated in peripheral blood, those against the spike proteins S1 and S2 of the envelope and those against the nucleoprotein of the nucleocapsid. Women were considered to have had Covid-19 in pregnancy if at least one of the assessment was positive. Overall, 28 women had a diagnosis of Covid-19 in pregnancy (8.9%, 95%CI: 6.2-12.5%), in line with the local general population. Women diagnosed with the infection were more likely to report one or more episodes of symptoms suggestive for Covid-19 (n=11, 39.3%) compared to unaffected women (n=39, 13.6%). The corresponding OR was 4.11 (95%CI: 1.79-9.44). Symptoms significantly associated with Covid-19 in pregnancy included fever, cough, dyspnea and anosmia. Only one woman necessitated intensive care. No maternal deaths occurred. Pregnancy outcome in women with and without Covid-19 did not also differ. In conclusion, women in the second half of pregnancy do not appear to be more susceptible to Covid-19 and its complications. In addition, the study suggests that pregnancy outcome may not be significantly affected.