Surprising Number of Pregnant Women at NYC Hospitals Test Positive for COVID-19
Many of those women showed no symptoms of the disease.
By Rachael Rettner | Senior Writer

LIVE SCIENCE – April 15, 2020 | A surprising number of pregnant women delivering babies at two New York City hospitals tested positive for COVID-19 without showing symptoms, according to a new study.

The findings suggest that the true rate of COVID-19 infection in the city overall could be much higher than thought.

(Image: © Shutterstock)

In the United States, people are generally tested for COVID-19 if they have serious symptoms, and so exactly how many people have the disease is unclear.

But to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the hospital setting, doctors at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital recently implemented universal COVD-19 screening for all pregnant women admitted to their hospitals for delivery.