Results
From March 5 2020 to May 13, 283 women had no current COVID-19 symptoms
and were screened for SARS-CoV-2 by PCR. In total 335 tests were
performed in 283 women (table 1). One woman who reported having symptoms
suggestive for COVID-19 four weeks before was excluded from the
analysis. Three women tested positive (1.1%) out of the 282 other
women. When questioned further, two suffered from mild symptoms; one had
a sore throat, but she had not mentioned this out of fear of being
refused treatment, one had an obstructed nose, and one was truly
asymptomatic. In one woman, a pending SARS-CoV-2 test, and therefore a
policy to adhere to COVID-19 protective measures during her emergency
caesarean, contributed to a prolonged decision-to-intervention interval
which in turn may have worsened perinatal asphyxia in her child. In
another two cases with post-partum haemorrhage the prolonged decision-to
intervention interval contributed to more pronounced blood loss.