Face-to-face Video Interview as an Alternative to In-person Visit to a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit during COVID-19 Outbreak

Abstract

By November 2020, approximately 50 million people around the world were confirmed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection, including 1.2 million deaths from COVID-19 related diseases (2.5%).1 The Korean government designated COVID-19 infection as the first class infectious disease, and has been striving to reduce the caseload with quarantine activities, including maintenance of social distance and mask-wearing.2 However, the risk of sporadic regional infections has increased and secondary outbreaks are ongoing, even though medical resources are limited. Many people are currently infected through contact regardless of age limit. Although no child has died from COVID-19 infections in Korea until now, high-risk groups of COVID-19 were mostly prohibited from visiting neonatal intensive care units (NICU). As a result, face-to-face time between neonates and parents has significantly decreased compared to interactions before COVID-19 pandemic declaration.3 Parents’ anxiety and complaints against the ban of personal visits have increased. In addition, challenges involving the early stages of birth such as decreased breastfeeding and restricted attachment between parents and neonates have emerged. Most of the medical personnel maintain telephone calls to inform parents of the baby's condition with pictures of babies taken on mobile phones; however, such efforts are not adequate to resolve the aforementioned problems.