COVID-19 pandemic in the neonatal intensive care unit: any effect on late-onset sepsis and necrotizing enterocolitis?

The study was aimed at describing potential indirect effects of pandemic-related measures on very-low-birthweight infants in four Italian NICUs. No overall change in late-onset sepsis (LOS) and necrotizing enterocolitis was documented. However, in the NICU where baseline LOS rate was high, a significant reduction in LOS incidence was recorded. Conclusion: COVID-19-related implementation of NICU hygiene policies is likely to reduce the occurrence of LOS in high-risk settings. What is Known:• COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted routine care in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs), mostly by tightening infection control measures and restricting parental presence in the NICU.• Beyond the described psychological impact of COVID-19 related measures on healthcare workers and NICU families, their consequences in terms of preterm infants’ clinical outcomes have not been described in detail yet.What is New:• Strengthened infection-control measures do not seem to have an overall influence on the incidence of necrotising enterocolitis and late-onset sepsis in very-low-birth-weight infants.• However, the implementation of these measures appears to reduce the occurrence of late-onset sepsis in settings where the baseline incidence of the disease is high.