Abstract
Long-term analyses of demographical and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients can provide a better overview of the clinical course of the disease. They can also help understand whether changes in infection symptomatology, disease severity, and outcome occur over time. We aimed to analyze the demographics, early symptoms of infection, laboratory parameters, and clinical manifestation of COVID-19 patients hospitalized during the first 17 months of the pandemic in Poland (March 2020–June 2021). The patients’ demographical and clinical data (n = 5199) were extracted from the national SARSTer database encompassing 30 medical centers in Poland and statistically assessed. Patients aged 50–64 were most commonly hospitalized due to COVID-19 regardless of the pandemic period. There was no shift in the age of admitted patients and patients who died throughout the studied period. Men had higher C-reactive protein and interleukin-6 levels and required oxygenation and mechanical ventilation more often. No gender difference in fatality rate was seen, although the age of males who died was significantly lower. A share of patients with baseline SpO2 < 91%, presenting respiratory, systemic and gastrointestinal symptoms was higher in the later phase of a pandemic than in the first three months. Cough, dyspnea and fever were more often presented in men, while women had a higher frequency of anosmia, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. This study shows some shifts in SARS-CoV-2 pathogenicity between March 2020 and July 2021 in the Polish cohort of hospitalized patients and documents various gender-differences in this regard. The results represent a reference point for further analyses conducted under the dominance of different SARS-CoV-2 variants.
Highlights
The outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in late December 2019 in China quickly became an emerging, continuously evolving situation, spreading inevitably outside the Asian continent
(D) comparison comparison of of these these percentages percentages between between each the early early and and late late phase phase of of the the pandemic. This provides a comprehensive overview of the COVID-19 hospitalized
COVID-19 patients in Poland over the first months of the pandemic and a reference point forpoint further hospitalized in Poland over the first 17 months of the pandemic and a reference for epidemiological analyses and comparisons
Summary
The outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in late December 2019 in China quickly became an emerging, continuously evolving situation, spreading inevitably outside the Asian continent. It was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern at the end of January 2020 and a pandemic in March 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO) [1]. SARS-CoV-2 infections remain predominantly asymptomatic or mild, the clinical spectrum of COVID-19 is vast and includes severe progressive pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, both of which can be accompanied by cytokine storm, thrombosis, and multiple organ dysfunction [2,3]. In late 2020 and at the beginning of 2021, the emergence of variants posing higher public health risks, classified as variants of interest (VOIs) and variants of concern (VOCs), were observed
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