Irish health authorities will investigate four cases of stillbirths that could be linked to the coronavirus outbreak, Deputy Chief Medical Officer of the Republic Ronan Glynn said on Thursday.
Mr Glynn told reporters in Dublin that “four preliminary reports of stillbirths potentially associated with a disease called COVID placentis” had been escalated to authorities.
According to medical examiners who reported the cases, the pregnant women tested positive for coronavirus and then delivered a stillborn child, whose cause of death was an infection of the placenta.
“More research needs to be done” before the results can be confirmed, the deputy chief medical officer said, adding that he cannot “give too many details as there aren’t many more at this point.”
According to the latest official report, the Republic of Ireland has 4,396 deaths due to the coronavirus pandemic. The country is currently in the middle of its third lockdown, after suffering the highest per capita infection rate in the world in early January.