Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on hospitalisation of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE): report from a tertiary hospital during the peak of the pandemic

We read with great interest the article by Mathian et al 1 who first described COVID-19 in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Subsequent reports2 3 focused on the clinical course of COVID-19 among patients with SLE. We were interested in the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on hospitalisation of patients with SLE. The first case of COVID-19 was reported in Malaysia on 25 January 2020. Cases spiked in early March 2020 until Malaysia recorded the highest cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 infections in South-East Asia. Malaysia instituted lockdown from 18 March 2020 until 9 June 2020 (a 12-week period) as a public health measure to curb the pandemic.4 Recent studies5 6 have reported increased mortality in out-of-hospital acute coronary syndromes, not fully explained by COVID-19 cases alone, and potentially related to the patients’ reluctance to seek medical care out of fear of the infection threat. Bromage et al 7 reported incident acute heart failure hospitalisation significantly declined in their centre during the COVID-19 pandemic, but hospitalised patients …