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Over 800 Newborns, 61 Pregnant Women Died Due To Admission Refusal During COVID
Writer: Ratika Rana
Her primary objective is to inform, promote, educate and cultivate readers through writing.
Meghalaya, 21 March 2022 9:06 AM GMT
Editor : Ankita Singh |
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Creatives : Ratika Rana
Her primary objective is to inform, promote, educate and cultivate readers through writing.
The Meghalaya Government has informed the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that 877 newborns and 61 pregnant women have died during the COVID-19 pandemic as the hospitals refused to provide admission for institutional delivery.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had registered a case over the high number of maternal and newborn deaths in Meghalaya during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the Meghalaya government has submitted a report citing that 877 newborn babies and 61 mothers died as pregnant women because hospitals denied them entry for institutional delivery amid the raging pandemic.
The report mentioned that even though women' abstained' from visiting health centres during the pandemic, the ASHA workers were continuously checking their health by conducting home visits, counselling and urging them to approach hospitals at the time of the delivery.
High-Risk Pregnant Women Tracked, Admitted In Hospitals
The Indian Express reported that "The causes of the newborn deaths had been looked into and it was found that the fatalities were due to the lack of medical attention and care because pregnant women refused to get themselves admitted to the health institutions due to fear and stigma of contracting COVID-19 and also the refusal to test for COVID-19," the report said. On the other hand, the report also mentioned that high-risk pregnant women were tracked and admitted to hospitals at least two weeks before their expected delivery date.
'Rescue Mission'
The report also highlighted that those hospitals were doing mandatory testing during COVID-19 to segregate the infected patients and contain the disease's spread. The government has taken into account the high number of deaths and launched a 'rescue mission' under which health teams would be constituted to identify all pregnant women in the state and register them on a mobile application to prevent further such instances.
Moreover, the state administration added that the underlying and often unaddressed socio-economic and gender dimensions also played a crucial role in the state's high number of maternal and newborn deaths.
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