Cameroonian Teenager Diagnosed with Covid-19 Delivers Healthy Baby Girl

According to reports, doctors in Cameroon helped a 19-year-old teenager, who tested positive for coronavirus, safely deliver a baby girl. The medical practitioners, who claimed that the mother was not allowed to have any contact with the child after delivery, claim that the delivery will help reveal some facts about Covid-19.  

Before her diagnosis, the patient had initially complained about breathing problems but medics at the Central Hospital of Yaoundé kept her in isolation after her result showed she had the virus, Dr Sone Charles told CNN.

Dr Charles said the teenager, who remains anonymous, went into premature labour, and doctors on duty did all they could to protect the baby and the mother.

The delivery happened within an hour with no complications, according to Dr Yaneu Ngaha, who led the team that assisted with the birth.

"It was quite fast. The baby came out and we separated her from the mother, who did not touch the child," Ngaha said. "We wore protective jackets and the mother also wore a mask."

The mother and baby are in good condition, Ngaha said, ''I thought I was going to die'

She added that samples were taken from the baby 14 hours after her delivery and the hospital is awaiting her test results.

"The baby has been transferred to the neonatal unit and kept in an incubator because she is premature, weighing about 2,000 grams. We check her temperature three times per day," Ngaha told CNN.

Cameroon currently records 685 total confirmed cases, 616 active confirmed cases, 60 recoveries, and 9 deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

In a statement by Erick Tandi with the Public Health Emergency Operations Center in Yaounde, the spike in cases has been blamed on indiscipline from people with travel history abroad who evaded quarantine.

"When the Minister of Public Health announced, before the closing of borders, that those who have come from abroad within early March should quarantine themselves in their homes -- this was not respected fully," Tandi said.

"That is the result of the community Covid-19 cases we are having now," he added.

The doctors believe that the child is negative to Covid-19 since there are no reports of the virus being passed from mother to child.