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Patient Characteristics and Clinical Course of COVID-19 Patients Treated at a German Tertiary Center During the First and Second Waves in the Year 2020

Abstract

In this study, we directly compared coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients hospitalized during the first (27 February-28 July 2020) and second (29 July-31 December 2020) wave of the pandemic at a large tertiary center in northern Germany. Patients who presented during the first ( = 174) and second ( = 331) wave did not differ in age (median [IQR], 59 years [46, 71] vs. 58 years [42, 73]; = 0.82) or age-adjusted Charlson Comorbidity Index (median [IQR], 2 [1, 4] vs. 2 [0, 4]; = 0.50). During the second wave, a higher proportion of patients were treated as outpatients (11% [ = 20] vs. 20% [ = 67]), fewer patients were admitted to the intensive care unit (43% [ = 75] vs. 29% [ = 96]), and duration of hospitalization was significantly shorter (median days [IQR], 14 [8, 34] vs. 11 [5, 19]; < 0.001). However, in-hospital mortality was high throughout the pandemic and did not differ between the two periods (16% [ = 27] vs. 16% [ = 54]; = 0.89). While novel treatment strategies and increased knowledge about the clinical management of COVID-19 may have resulted in a less severe disease course in some patients, in-hospital mortality remained unaltered at a high level. These findings highlight the unabated need for efforts to hamper severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission, to increase vaccination coverage, and to develop novel treatment strategies to prevent mortality and decrease morbidity.

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