US NICUs and donor milk banks brace for COVID-19
Bryant Furlow
Published:April 01, 2020DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(20)30103-6
Neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) and donor human milk programmes across the USA are bracing for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. NICU workers have tested positive for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes COVID-19. A worker at the Children's Hospital & Medical Center NICU in Omaha (NE) was in contact with ten patients 3–4 days before testing positive for the virus, according to a March 25 report by the Associated Press. In Alabama, at least one newborn was placed in isolation after a NICU nurse tested positive. The Illinois Department of Public Health announced on March 28 that an infant who tested positive for COVID-19 had died in Chicago—the first infant death in the US outbreak. But state officials contacted by The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health would not confirm whether or not that baby had been treated at a NICU.
