The newborn child is cared for in the neonatal ward at Skåne University Hospital. This is the first known case in Sweden where a newborn has been confirmed infected immediately after birth.

- We do not know for sure when it was infected, but we must assume that it happened during pregnancy, says Elisabeth Olhager, operations manager for pediatric surgery and neonatal care at Skåne University Hospital, to the newspaper.

Follows the routines

According to the hospital, the child has none of the symptoms that young children with covid-19 usually show, such as cough, fever and fatigue. Even before the baby was born, it was determined that the mother was infected. The hospital states that they followed the routines developed for births where the mother is positive.

Elisabeth Olhager does not believe that the routines need to be changed, despite the suspicion of transmitted infection.

- In the Stockholm Region, among other places, there have been significantly more births where the mother has been infected but has not seen any such transmission, as far as I know. So I do not judge that any change is needed after a case, says Elisabeth Olhager to Dagens Medicin.

Few cases in the world

Even internationally, it has only been reported on a few occasions that babies became infected during pregnancy. A British study, published in the journal Lancet in July, followed 116 pregnant women with covid-19 diagnosed. None of them transmitted the infection to the baby during pregnancy.