Clinicodemographic Parameters and Outcomes in Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 Infection during the Third Wave in India: Is it the End of the Pandemic?

Abstract

Introduction: The patient data from the third wave of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in New Delhi caused by the Omicron variant in terms of severity of disease, incidental diagnosis, outcome, and effect of vaccination are relatively lacking. We set out to investigate the demographic and clinical parameters and outcomes of patients hospitalized with COVID-19, the differences between incidentally and symptomatically diagnosed patients, and the impact of vaccination on clinical manifestations and outcomes. Methods: The study was conducted at a non-COVID-19 dedicated tertiary care institute in India. The data with regard to presentation, vaccination, and outcome were collected prospectively. Results: A total of 101 patients were analyzed for the study. The mean age was 50.63 years with 46.53% women. No patient was of pediatric age. Respiratory failure was present in 26.73%. COVID-19 pneumonia was present in only 13.86%. There were 17 deaths. Only 4 deaths were caused by COVID-19 pneumonia. 60.4% of the patients were incidentally detected and 39.6% were symptomatically diagnosed. No incidentally detected patient had respiratory failure or COVID-19 pneumonia. Out of 101 patients, 66.34% were vaccinated and 33.66% were unvaccinated. Death occurred in 8.96% of vaccinated and 32.5% of unvaccinated patients. No vaccinated patient died due to COVID-19 pneumonia compared to 11.76% of unvaccinated patients. Conclusion: The Omicron wave had more patients admitted with incidentally detected COVID-19 than symptomatic individuals. These patients required in-hospital management of coexisting illnesses rather than for COVID-19. There were more deaths with non-COVID-19 causes. Vaccination appeared to be protective against severe COVID-19. Mortality was found to be lower in vaccinated individuals.