In regards to the demographic factors, the majority of the study participants were males (58.91%), and (41.09%) were females. Likewise, in an observational study of Covid-19 patients hospitalized in Bergamo, Italy, out of 431 adult patients admitted, males constituted the majority of the participants, with a percentage of 72.4%, whereas females constituted 27.6%. [5]
In respect to age, the majority of the study participants were aged between 41 and 80 years old. This was consistent with a cohort done in metropolitan Atlanta and Georgia with 305 hospitalized COVID 19 patients where the median age was 60 years old with an interquartile range between 46–69 years old showing greater propensity for this age group. [6]
In terms of marital status, the majority of the participants were married (58.91%) compared to 39.58% who were single and 1.5% were widows. In contrast, a cross-sectional study was done in Ecuador. It included 9486 participants and showed that in terms of civil status, 39.3% of the participants were single, 38% were married, 13% were cohabitants with their partners, 5.4% were divorced, and 1.3% were widows. [7]
Patients infected with COVID-19 have variations in the symptoms, ranging from asymptomatic status to severe manifestations. Those with a mild type of the disease could have a fever, in addition to sore throat, cough, arthralgia, fatiguability, vomiting, and diarrhea. The severe form has a wide range of symptoms, including a respiratory rate of more than 30 breaths per minute, oxygen saturation of 93% in room air, PaO2/FiO2 of 300, and lung infiltrates in more than 50% of the lung field. The critical type comprises acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), sepsis, cytokine storm and multi-organ failure. [8]
78.8% of the study participants had evidence of pneumonia in their chest X-ray, 36.8% had o2 saturation less than 93% in room air, 10.7% had ARDS, 3.5% had sepsis, and 45.7% met the criteria for cytokine storm. In comparison, a meta-analysis of 21 studies with a total of 47,344 patients looking for symptoms and complications of COVID 19 discovered that ARDS risk was 9.4%, kidney injury was 2.1%, and shock was 4.7 %.[9]
Another retrospective study was conducted in China to evaluate the severity of symptoms on admission, complications, and outcome in COVID 19 patients. 548 patients were enrolled. The study identified that 49.1% of patients had severe presentations upon admission. Older age, underlying hypertension, high cytokine levels, and high LDH levels were significantly associated with severe COVID-19 on admission. According to the survival analysis, male sex, older age, leucocytosis, high LDH levels, and high-dose corticosteroid use were all associated with death in patients with severe COVID-19. [10]
The severity and mortality rates of COVID 19 vary across different studies. In our study, 27.7% of the participants required ICU admission, 10.5% required mechanical ventilators, with a 7.2% mortality rate. According to a meta-analysis from 37 articles, about one-third of the patients infected with Covid 19 were admitted to the ICU with severe disease features, with mortality exceeding 30% of the total number of patients admitted. [11]
Furthermore, it’s speculated that the widespread availability of the vaccine to be associated with a decline in the number of cases admitted to the hospital and to the ICU. In accordance with that, our study displayed that taking the vaccine more than 14 days prior to hospitalization reduced ICU admissions by 82% and receiving a vaccine reduced hospital stay by 19.7%, which demonstrates that vaccines have a tangible influence in decreasing the length of hospitalizations and ICU admissions. A prospective cohort study was done in 2021 in Scotland to explore the association between the widespread distribution of first doses of COVID-19 vaccines and COVID-19 hospitalizations. A total of 1,331,993 individuals were vaccinated during the study duration. The average age of those who had been immunized was 65. The 1st dose of the Pfizer vaccine reduced COVID-19 admission to the hospital by 91% at 28 to 34 days after immunization. During the same period, the AstraZeneca vaccine reduced hospitalizations by 88%. When the study was limited to patients aged 80 and above, the combination of vaccine effects in reducing COVID 19 hospitalization was similar, reaching up to 83 percent at 2834 days post-vaccination. The widespread distribution of the 1st doses of both vaccines was linked to a significant decrease in the frequency of COVID-19-related hospitalization in Scotland, according to the forementioned findings. [12]
In 2021, A case-control study was conducted in England to determine the efficacy of the Pfizer (BNT162b2) vaccine and the AstraZeneca (ChAdOx1) vaccine against confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations, and deaths in the real world. All individuals in England aged 70 and more were included in the study (over 7.5 million). cases who had received 1 dosage of Pfizer had a 43% lower chance of emergency hospitalization and a 51% lower risk of mortality. Cases who received 1 dose of AstraZeneca vaccine had a 37% lower probability of emergency hospitalization. Due to the vaccine's later introduction, there was insufficient follow-up to examine the AstraZeneca effect on mortality. When the effect against symptomatic illness was considered, one dose of either vaccines was around 80% effective to prevent hospitalization. According to the findings, vaccination with any of the two options was linked to a considerable decrease in symptomatic COVID-19 positive cases in the elderly population with better protection against severe disease. [13]