Baby is born with antibodies after his mom contracted COVID-19

A baby in China has been born with coronavirus antibodies after his mother contracted COVID-19 when she was pregnant.

The healthy boy was born to a woman who is originally from Hubei, where the pandemic started.

Doctors said the child's coronavirus antibodies were 'a natural anti-virus ability' passed to him from the mother. 

The mother, known by her pseudonym Xiaoyu, tested positive for the coronavirus in early April despite showing no symptoms. She recovered after receiving 10-day treatment. 

Xiaoyu gave birth on May 30 in the southern city of Shenzhen, where she lives and works. 

The mother and child have been discharged from the Shenzhen Third Hospital after both of their coronavirus testing results came back negative, according to a social media post from the local government.

Xiaoyu caught the deadly disease after she and her husband went to stay with her family in the Wuchang city of Hubei province in central China in mid-January.

The provincial capital Wuhan went into lockdown on January 23 after the outbreak accelerated. The majority part of Hubei followed the draconian measures in the following days. 

Xiaoyu's mother was diagnosed with the COVID-19 in early February. But both Xiaoyu and her husband had tested negative.

The couple were allowed to return to their home in Shenzhen at the end of March after spending two months under quarantine.

In early April, the expectant mother tested positive for the coronavirus when she went to the hospital for a prenatal examination

She was diagnosed as an asymptomatic patient, one of those who showed no symptoms but could still spread the virus.

Xiaoyu recovered from the deadly disease after being treated for ten days. She then gave birth to a healthy baby boy last Saturday. 

The first-time mother received six nucleic acid tests after her labour and all the results came back negative.

The newborn also tested negative for the coronavirus. His screening results indicated that the baby boy was born with coronavirus antibodies.

The hospital told the press that they would conduct further research based on the mother and child's results in the hope to provide new findings for the development of COVID-19 vaccines. 

As the coronavirus pandemic sweeping across the globe, scientists around the world have been trying to understand the deadly disease better. 

There is still ongoing debate about whether expectant mothers who are infected with the coronavirus would pass it to their unborn babies.