Coronavirus patient gives birth to healthy baby girl as medics pose in hazmat gear

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Second coronavirus death reported outside Chinese mainland

A new coronavirus death has been reported in Hong Kong as health experts say the outbreak is increasingly looking like a global pandemic; Jonathan Serrie reports from Atlanta.

A medical team equipped with hazmat suits celebrated the healthy birth of a baby girl whose mother was diagnosed with the coronavirus late last week. The woman, who was not named in the AsiaWire report, went into labor on Jan. 30 shortly after being diagnosed with the virus, which has sickened over 20,000 and been linked to at least 425 deaths.

The newborn girl  was delivered by C-section in quarantine at designated coronavirus treatment facility Harbin Sixth People's Hospital. (AsiaWire)

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The woman had been in contact with relatives who were reportedly diagnosed with coronavirus after returning from Wuhan, which is considered the virus epicenter. She was taken to Harbin Sixth People’s Hospital in Heilongjiang, and doctors decided to deliver the baby via caesarian section.

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“The patient was anxious as we brought her to the operating theater,” said Dr. Yu Dan, an obstetrician from Harbin Red Cross Central Hospital, according to AsiaWire. “She had only just been told of her confirmed diagnosis, so she was concerned for her child. In addition to that, she was accompanied by no family members, as all had been placed in quarantine as either confirmed or suspected cases.”

The medics, wearing full hazmat suits, were later themselves isolated at a precaution. (AsiaWire)

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The baby was born healthy and placed in isolation, and both she and the mother are in stable condition, according to AsiaWire. The infant has twice tested negative for the virus but will remain under observation for 14 days.

“This child is a special case,” Zhao Huaxian, the hospital’s head of pediatrics, told AsiaWire. “Our first concern was a vertical transmission infection, so we took precautions and put her under round-the-clock monitoring.”

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While 99 percent of coronavirus cases remain in China, about 150 cases have been reported across 25 countries, including the U.S. Two coronavirus deaths have now been reported outside China, with one occurring in the Philippines and another in Hong Kong. The number of confirmed cases has now surpassed that of the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak, in which 8,096 people were infected and 744 deaths occurred worldwide.