Pregnant women urged to follow health protocols

By Dolly Yasa

 

BACOLOD City – Inter-Agency Task Force-Visayas chief implementer Mel Feliciano, who oversees the COVID-19 Emergency Operations Task Force (EOC-TF) here, urged pregnant women to strictly follow the prescribed minimum health protocols.

Feliciano noted that despite the overall improvement of the COVID-19 situation in Bacolod City, there are still a considerable number of pregnant women who tested positive for COVID-19.

Data from the EOC showed that from Sept 23 to Oct 26, 2020, a total of 517 pregnant women were tested and 43 yielded positive results. This translates to 8.32 percent positivity rate.

The EOC-TF has yet to particularly identify the source/s of COVID-19 infection among pregnant women, but it said that it may be through household transmission or exposure during commute or travel, Feliciano said.

According to the task force’s report, the husbands of most of these women (positive indices) were found to be negative of COVID-19.

“The EOC will look into the process on how prenatal is conducted by different health centers which may possibly cause the infection,” Feliciano said.

On Wednesday, the EOC convened the nurses and midwives of the 27 barangay health stations in Bacolod City to join its daily huddle to assess if correct protocols are being observed inside their respective clinics.

The EOC will also look into the process on how prenatal checkups are conducted by different health centers, which might have caused the infection among pregnant women, Feliciano said.