ACOG’s COVID-19 Task Force Updates
A session held virtually at the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology’s (ACOG) Annual Clinical and Scientific Meeting, which started on April 30, reviewed updates from its COVID-19 task force as we continue to witness the vaccine rollout.
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On Saturday, May 1, ACOG’s coronavirus 19 (COVID-19) in pregnancy task force joined together to provide updates and answer frequently asked questions. The panel discussion began with a brief overview of ACOG’s response and concluded with a Q&A session for the task force.
ACOG’s COVID-19 response has evolved from the start of the pandemic until now. Beginning in December 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the first Health Alert Network correspondence about a novel coronavirus detected in China. January 2020 brought increasing concerns about the novel coronavirus as the impacts to the U.S. remained unknown. In February 2020, ACOG released its first Practice Advisory on the Novel Coronavirus 2019 on February 26, 2020. March 2020 brought a flood of inquiries on COVID-19—most of them relating to pregnancy—and the first round of FAQs was drafted by ACOG staff and SMEs.
Four COVID-19 Expert Work Groups were formed in March and April of 2020 to address questions and develop guidance for practitioners that focused on ethics, gynecology, obstetrics and telehealth. From April 2020 to present, the obstetrics-focused work group continues to meet weekly to review, revise, and develop FAQs as needed.
Due to the rapidly developing nature of COVID-19 information, ACOG has developed the Practice Advisory and over 100 clinician and patient FAQs, plus a vaccination Practice Advisory.
The panel discussion mainly focused on the Q&A session, with the most frequently asked question revolving around COVID-19 in pregnancy and prophylactic anticoagulation. The panel summarized with the guidance as follows: If a pregnant woman has received the vaccine, there is no indication for prophylaxis. Patients with moderate to severe disease that are hospitalized should get prophylaxis. Patients who are outpatient, whether they were ill or only had mild or asymptomatic disease, do not get prophylaxis in the outpatient setting. In the postpartum setting, multiple risk factor indication may be used as per the institution’s standards.
Contemporary OB/GYN Senior Editor Angie DeRosa gets insight on the current state of COVID-19 from Christina Han, MD, division director of maternal-fetal medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and member of its COVID-19 task force. Han is an active member of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine and discusses the issues on behalf of SMFM.
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