9-day-old baby could be youngest Covid-19 case in MP

Half-buried newborn miraculously rescued in Andhra village

Bhopal: A nine-day-old baby girl is possibly the youngest victim of COVID-19 in Madhya Pradesh. The girl, born on April 7, tested positive in Bhopal on Sunday.

The father of the newborn said she perhaps was infected from a woman health worker, who was on duty during the girl’s birth. The health worker later tested positive.

Bhopal’s Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) Dr Prabhakar Tiwari confirmed the mother and the nine-day-old girl testing positive in Sunday’s reports.

The girl’s father said, “I admitted my wife on April 7 at government’s Sultania Zanana Hospital, where she delivered the baby through caesarean operation.”

He said, “We shifted home from the hospital on April 11 and I read in the newspaper the next day about the health worker testing positive. I suspected my wife and daughter could have been infected. I contacted the hospital and the doctor but got no information or help.

“During a check-up camp in city’s Barkhedi area the doctors suspected that my daughter may have COVID-19 infection and performed tests and today we received the results.”

As of Sunday afternoon, 214 persons have been tested positive in Bhopal. Of these, six have died while 31 have recovered.