Table 3.

Presence of SARS-CoV-2 in neonates and fetuses

	Country	Sample size	Age (years)	Sex	Diagnosis of COVID-19 complication	Baseline severity of COVID-19	Biopsy or autopsy	Organs analysed	Findings	Time between the acute infection and biopsy or autopsy	Evidence of virus or viral fragments or antibodies
Schwartz et al (2022)37	International	6	Fetuses	No reported	Maternal COVID in pregnancy	Critical COVID-19	Autopsy	Whole body	4 of 6 autopsied stillborns babies had SARS-CoV-2 in internal organs (lung, brain, kidney, and heart)	Not reported	Viral RNA
Lesieur et al (2021)38	France	1	Fetus	Female	Maternal COVID-19 in pregnancy	Mild	Autopsy	Thymus, lung, bronchial tree, stomach, spleen, adrenal gland, kidney, oesophagus, liver, heart, pancreas, and trachea	RNA and spike protein found in lungs, and liver; RNA found in spleen and thymus; spike protein found in the stomach, heart, and lymph nodes	11 days	Viral RNA and spike protein
Reagan-Steiner et al (2022)39	2022	1	1 day	Male	Critical COVID-19	Critical COVID-19	Autopsy	Whole body	SARS-CoV-2 RNA detected in lung, airway, heart, liver, spleen, and kidney tissue by conventional RT-PCR; subgenomic RNA, suggesting SARS-CoV-2 replication, detected by subgenomic RT-PCR in lung, airway, heart, and liver tissue, but not in spleen or kidney tissue	6 days from maternal infection	Viral RNA