Newborn of infected parent recovers from coronavirus without medication

A newborn girl, who was born in Wuhan, China to a coronavirus infected parent, has fully recovered from the infection without being given any medication. 

The 17-day-old baby left hospital few days ago. She is the youngest patient to have recovered in China so far, reports Daily Mail.

Symptoms of infection were found shortly after the girl born. She was transferred to Wuhan Children's Hospital the same day, according to the People's Daily. 

The girl, known as Xiao Xiao, had an infection in her respiratory system and minor myocardial damage, said Dr Zeng Lingkong, director of the Department of Neonatology at the hospital.

Because the girl's symptoms were not obvious, doctors decided not to give her antibiotic medication and let her overcome the disease on her own.

"She did not have obvious difficulties in breathing, did not cough or have fever, therefore we only treated her myocardial condition,' Dr Zeng told state broadcaster for CCTV.

She was allowed to go home on Friday afternoon after testing negative in three consecutive nucleic acid detection tests.

Dr Zeng said the baby had fully recovered not only from coronavirus, but from her heart condition as well.

"She even grew bigger and fatter here," Dr Zeng said.

Doctors in China had feared the possibility of the infection passing from mothers to their babies in the womb.

"This reminds us to pay attention to a potential new transmission route of the coronavirus - vertical transmission from mothers to babies," Dr Zeng said at the time.

The new coronavirus has killed more than 2,800 people in China, infected almost 80,000 so far and has paralysed its economy.

The country's oldest patient yet is a 96-year-old woman who recovered from the disease after being treated in the intensive care units for three days.

Globally, the coronavirus epidemic has killed at least 2,900 people, infected more than 85,000 and spread to at least two dozen countries so far.