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The majority of pregnant women who tested positive for COVID-19 on arrival to the delivery room were asymptomatic, according to a paper by Mount Sinai researchers published in
PLOS One on Thursday, December 10. The pregnant patients who tested positive for the coronavirus were also more likely than those who tested negative to identify as Hispanic and report their primary language as Spanish.
In a retrospective cross-sectional study of universal screenings for SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, implemented in the labor and delivery unit of Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, New York, during March and April, the researchers found that more than one-third of almost 130 pregnant women tested positive for the coronavirus. This is a much higher proportion than reported at other hospitals in New York City during the pandemic surge, and likely related to social inequities experienced by the surrounding population. Elmhurst Hospital is a public hospital that serves a diverse, largely immigrant and low-income patient population that was severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring. The majority, or 72 percent, of the pregnant patients who tested positive were asymptomatic, meaning they did not display any symptoms associated with COVID-19. These findings add to the evidence that there was early and rampant asymptomatic spread of the disease at a time when most community and hospital testing was limited to symptomatic individuals.