Demographics and clinical presentation of Covid-19 patients admitted to a public tertiary care hospital, Lahore

Background: Health care services around the world are under enormous pressure of Covid-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2. Pakistan is witnessing the third wave of Epidemic with total number of cases reaching up to 8,15,711. Effective disease management and control efforts rely on understanding the demographics as well as the presentation of disease among a wider pool of patients. This study analyzes the demographics, presenting complaints and outcomes of patients presenting to a Public sector tertiary care hospital. Methods: This is a descriptive case series analyzing the demographics, presenting complaints, co-morbidities and outcomes of Covid-19 patients presenting to our tertiary care setup from June-July 2020. The diagnosis of covid infection was confirmed by Real-time reverse transcriptase Polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) on nasal swabs. Results: A total of 386 Covid patients were admitted, with mean age of 54 years. Majority 53% of patients were in the age group 50-75 yrs. There were 33% in age group 25-50 yrs followed by 7.5% in >75 years and 6.55 in < 25 years. There were 60 % of male patients. Shortness of breath was the most common presenting feature as it was present in 71% of patients, followed by fever (69%).Cough was present in 46% of patients. Among all admitted Covid patients, 69% had co morbidities, predominant were Diabetes and Hypertension. With respect to outcome 34% died while 53% were cured and discharged. Disease outcome was cross tabulated with age and mortality increased with age and more amongst males. Conclusion: Demographics and Clinical presentations of admitted Covid patients during study period reveal that Males and age group 50-75 years are more involved and suffer mortality. Shortness of breath and fever are common features.