Demographic and clinical profile of Covid-19 patients admitted at a tertiary care hospital in South India.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic emerged as a major public health emergency affecting healthcare services all over the world. It is essential to analyze the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with COVID-19 in different parts of our country. This study highlights clinical experience in managing patients with COVID-19 at a tertiary care center in South India. It is pertinent to identify the clinical and demographic characteristics of patients considering the novelty and substantial heterogeneity of the illness across the world. The pathogen has been named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which has a phylogenetic similarity to SARS-CoV beta coronavirus. Aim of the study: To assess the demographics, clinical characteristics, comorbidities, and outcomes of a cohort of patients with COVID-19. Materials and methods: A record-based cross-sectional study. All cases were admitted in the covid ward of the Department of TB & Respiratory Disease, Government Hospital of Thoracic Medicine, Chennai from 26th June to 5th December 2020. A total of 2552 patients with confirmed covid-19 were included in the study. All the patients were analyzed in study demographics, clinical characteristics, comorbidities, and outcomes of a cohort of patients with COVID-19. Results: 24 patients were excluded due to a lack of sufficient data. Of the remaining 976 in the early phase of the epidemic, males were admitted twice as much as females (67.1% and 32.9%, respectively). More than 8% reported no symptoms and the most common presenting symptoms were fever (78.3%), productive cough (37.2%), and dyspnea (30.64%). More than one-half (53.6%) had no co-morbidity. The major comorbidities were hypertension (23.7%), diabetes without (15.4%), and complications. Conclusion: The majority of the patients with COVID-19 infection presenting to our hospital were young and asymptomatic. Fever was noted only in three-fourth of the patients and respiratory symptoms in half of them. Patients with comorbidities were more vulnerable to complications. Triaged classification of patients and protocol-based treatment resulted in good outcomes and low case fatality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]