Carvalho WB, Gibelli MABC, Krebs VLJ, Tragante CR, Perondi MBM. Role of a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit during the COVID-19 Pandemia: recommendations from the neonatology discipline. Rev Assoc Med Bras (1992). 2020;66(7):894-897. doi:10.1590/1806-9282.66.7.894

On 11th March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 a pandemic. The Obstetrics and Neonatology disciplines needed to be revised to suit the institutional need to expand intensive care beds to care for confirmed or suspected patients with COVID-19 in the state of São Paulo, following the recommendations of the Institutional Crisis Committee. Three different actions were needed: the structuring of teams and advanced medical post to attend COVID-19-free patients and those with suspect or confirmed COVID-19; elaborating the protocols from the delivery room throughout hospitalization. Some special considerations about breastfeeding and rooming-in were needed. The third action was the drafting of a protocol to admit infants from other hospitals with confirmed COVID-19 as the unit never admitted outpatients before.