ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic continues into spring 2022. Vaccination levels are relatively flat, and movement toward recommending a second booster is occurring. Many are now acknowledging that the pandemic is likely to continue for years to come. Waiting for the end of the pandemic to return to "normal" life and assume prepandemic activities is a less viable strategy as the virus continues to mutate and infect individuals across the world. A burgeoning literature is examining short- and long-term societal changes resulting from the pandemic.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Neoplasms , COVID-19/prevention & control , Early Detection of Cancer , Humans , Neoplasms/epidemiology , Neoplasms/prevention & control , Pandemics/prevention & control , ResearchABSTRACT
We conducted two surveys to evaluate the health-seeking behaviors of individuals with acute respiratory infections (ARI) during the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China. Among 351 participants reporting ARI (10.3%, 351/3,411), 36.5% sought medical assistance. Children were more likely to seek medical assistance than other age-groups (66.1% vs. 28.0%-35.1%). This population-based study demonstrates that the majority of patients with ARI symptoms did not seek medical assistance during the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan. These findings may be used to refine the estimates of disease burden and clinical severity of COVID-19 and to plan for health resources allocation.