Woman miscarries because of COVID delays

News about a pregnant woman in Chongqing's Jiulongpo district who miscarried her baby because of delays in local epidemic prevention and control, aroused a heated discussion online.

On Monday, an official preliminary investigation report was released by the local government saying that early on Saturday morning, Lei — who had been pregnant for 10 weeks and was feeling unwell — called up a property management staff for a car to take her to see a doctor, as her private car was not home.

However, the one and only transfer vehicle in Lei's community was on a mission to take a cancer patient and two other pregnant women to the hospital, and later was low on power.

Communication between the patient and property management and community staffs via phone calls and social media platform WeChat took as long as four hours before the property management company managed to send Lei and her husband to the local hospital at 11:26, via a private car.

Later, the woman was found having miscarried the baby. She doubted it was due to previous delays by local staff.

The report said the property management and community staffs had handled the case normally, and the online news about an ambulance blocked from entering the community was untrue.

However, there were problems, including untimely communication between the community and property management staff members and the patient, inadequate community vehicles and inflexibility in problem handling.

In the report, the local government made sincere apologies to the family, and ordered relevant parties to pay compensation. Meanwhile, further investigations is being carried out.

It said the local government will learn from the incident, smooth residents' feedback channels. It urged the communities to improve their service mechanisms.

At a news conference on Saturday, a spokesman for the Chongqing government, Yang Lin called on the communities to pay special attention to the elderly who live alone, pregnant women, babies, the disabled and those with chronic diseases, and help with their problems.

Early on Friday, the Chongqing Health Commission sent out a letter to the maternity community in Chongqing online suggesting the group call their own checkup institutions or local women and children health care institutions for immediate help if they feel unwell or have difficulties.