This electron microscope photo provided by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases shows the coronavirus isolated at the facility. (Photo Courtesy of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases)

       CHIBA -- Chiba University Hospital has set aside some of its maternity beds specifically for pregnant women with COVID-19 following reports that an expectant mother infected with the coronavirus prematurely gave birth at home in the Chiba Prefecture city of Kashiwa and lost her child after being unable to find a hospital that could admit her.

       According to the university hospital, a designated perinatal medical center based in the city of Chiba, some of the six maternal-fetal ICU beds it has for accepting women with high-risk pregnancies will be assigned to those with COVID-19.

       The hospital will not use the point system introduced by the Chiba Prefectural Government, referred to as the hospitalization priority evaluation score, when deciding how to prioritize pregnant COVID-19 patients. Instead, the hospital will decide what risk each pregnant patient faces. The beds will first be offered to residents in the city of Chiba, and in the event the hospital receives any wider-area transportation requests from people outside the city, it will respond on a case-by-case basis.

       The hospital's maternal-fetal ICUs have already been used to care for expectant mothers with COVID-19, and the bed-occupancy rate from Aug. 11 to 18 -- the most recent seven-day total -- was 92.2%. Its beds are continually on the verge of being full.

       But in response to the recent death of the newborn, the hospital decided to assign some beds as COVID-19-dedicated ones. Although it expects this will make it more difficult to accept ordinarily risky pregnancies, the hospital stated, "Operations will be pressured, but under the circumstances we have to take a response of some kind."

       (Japanese original by Seiho Akimaru, Chiba Bureau)

       Font Size S M L Print Timeline 0