COVID-19 biorepository-Qatar

Background: The unpresented global spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its resulting disease (COVID-19) is characterized as one of the greatest global public health crises of the recent decades. The COVID-19 Biorepository is Qatar's National project aiming to support the extraordinary demand on high-quality, curated clinical data and biological samples contributing to research related to the understanding of, and response to, the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts in Qatar and worldwide. Methods: COVID-19 diagnosed patients, who were Qatar residents and they could communicate in Arabic, English, Hindi and Urdu, were eligible to participate in the study. Participants were recruited from the main three COVID-19 public hospitals and isolation facilities in Doha, Qatar for a 7-month period (March-September 2020). Consented participants were followed up on a weekly basis until recovery, and then monthly for a year. Sociodemographic and clinical data were collected in electronic questionnaires via a face-to-face interview by trained QBB staff together with biological samples. COVID-19 Rapid Antibodies tests together with Anti- SARS-COV-2- seroprevalence tests are in place to investigate the development and durability of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Results: A total of 2097 consented participants were recruited up to September 2020. The population is multinational (n = 45 different nationalities)withmales (N = 1050;50.07%) and females (N = 1047;49.93%) and a mean age of 41 years (SD, 15.5). 61.0% of the participants had at least one follow up while 27%adhered to monthly follow up visits. Data have been collected for 99.7% of the participants, while the follow up process is ongoing. In total there are 107,171 high quality specimens in the biorepository including plasma, erythrocytes, buffy coat, serum, PAXgene Whole Blood, Nasopharyngeal secretions and DNA. 61.6% of the participants were asymptomatic or with mild symptoms, 12.4% developed moderate symptoms, 15.1% developed severe symptoms and 11.0% were reported as critical. The 5.7% (n = 121) of the participants were deceased after hospitalization. Conclusion: COVID-19 biorepository is a National asset for Qatar. It is expected to provide high quality data and biological samples to the scientific community that can be used to illuminate the pathophysiology of and to identify markers of disease prognosis of COVID-19 in Qatar and worldwide.