Rasmussen, Marie IsabelHansen, Mathias LuehrPichler, GerhardDempsey, EugenePellicer, AdelinaEl-Khuffash, AfifShashidhar, A.Piris-Borregas, SalvadorAlsina, MiguelCetinkaya, MerihChalak, LinaÖzkan, HilalBaserga, MarianaSirc, JanFuchs, HansErgenekon, EbruArruza, LuisMathur, AmitStocker, MartinVaccarello, Olalla OteroSzczapa, TomaszSarafidis, KosmasKrolak-Olejnik, BarbaraMemişoğlu, AslıReigstad, HallvardRafinska-Wazny, ElzbietaHatzidaki, EleftheriaPeng, ZhangGkentzi, DespoinaViellevoye, RenaudDe Buyst, JulieMastretta, EmmanueleWang, PingHahn, Gitte HolstBender, LarsCornette, LucTkaczyk, Jakubdel Rio, RuthFumagalli, MonicaPapathoma, EvangeliaWilinska, MariaNaulaers, GunnarSadowska-Krawczenko, IwonaLecart, ChantalCouce, Maria LuzFredly, SivHeuchan, Anne MarieKaren, TanjaGreisen, Gorm2024-06-142024-06-142021-06-152296-2360https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2021.647880https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fped.2021.647880/fullhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8310995/https://hdl.handle.net/11452/42211Objective: To evaluate if the number of admitted extremely preterm (EP) infants (born before 28 weeks of gestational age) differed in the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) of the SafeBoosC-III consortium during the global lockdown when compared to the corresponding time period in 2019.Design: This is a retrospective, observational study. Forty-six out of 79 NICUs (58%) from 17 countries participated. Principal investigators were asked to report the following information: (1) Total number of EP infant admissions to their NICU in the 3 months where the lockdown restrictions were most rigorous during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, (2) Similar EP infant admissions in the corresponding 3 months of 2019, (3) the level of local restrictions during the lockdown period, and (4) the local impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the everyday life of a pregnant woman.Results: The number of EP infant admissions during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was 428 compared to 457 in the corresponding 3 months in 2019 (-6.6%, 95% CI -18.2 to +7.1%, p = 0.33). There were no statistically significant differences within individual geographic regions and no significant association between the level of lockdown restrictions and difference in the number of EP infant admissions. A post-hoc analysis based on data from the 46 NICUs found a decrease of 10.3%in the total number of NICU admissions (n = 7,499 in 2020 vs. n = 8,362 in 2019).Conclusion: This ad hoc study did not confirm previous reports of a major reduction in the number of extremely pretermbirths during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessExtremely pretermCovid-19Randomized clinical trialPandemicObservational studyNeonatal intensive care unit admissionPediatricsArticle000680689700001910.3389/fped.2021.647880