Abstract:
Objective: To describe the clinical characteristics, signs & symptoms, disease severity, and outcome of patients
admitted with novel coronavirus infection.
Study Design: Comparative cross-sectional study.
Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in the Department of Medicine of Pak-Emirates Military
st th Hospital, (PEMH), Rawalpindi from May 1 , 2020 to June 30 , 2020.
Materials and Methods: Patients hospitalized with novel corona virus infection during the study period were
prospectively enrolled in this study. Patients at least 15 years and above, either gender, hospitalized with
confirmed diagnosis of covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2) were eligible to be enrolled. The study outcomes included
disease presentation, severity at time of reporting, admission to critical care or intensive care unit and
mortality. Patients were identified as mild, moderate, severe and critical in accordance with World Health
Organization guidelines, based on symptom severity, laboratory and imaging findings.
Results: There were 400 hospitalized patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2, out of which 51 (12.8%) were
females, while 349 (87.3%) were males with overall mean age of 48.45±16.2 years. There were 300 (75.0%)
patients with mild disease severity, while 65 (16.3%), 20 (5.0%) and 15 (3.8%) with moderate, severe and critical
disease condition, respectively. The number of patients died were 22, with fatality rate of 5.5%. Age and
presence of comorbidities (cardiac disease, diabetes, hypertension, pulmonary disease, kidney disease) were
significantly associated with disease severity and death due to novel coronavirus infection.
Conclusion: Patients with older age, diabetes, hypertension, pulmonary disease, kidney disease were at higher
risk of developing severe disease condition and death due to novel coronavirus infection.
