Clinico-epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 patients in Odisha – A retrospective single centre study

ABSTRACT

Background:From the day of the detection of 1st case in India on 30th January 2020, COVID -19, has infected 8.96 mil- lion people in India, from around 128 million samples tested. The clinico -epidemiological characteristics of COVID 19 have been varied in different countries. The present study was undertaken to understand the clinico -epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 in Odisha. Methods:This was a retrospective, single centre study. The epidemiological, demographic & clinical parameters were analysed of the samples tested in AIIMS Bhubaneswar between March 2020 to November 2020. Results:A total of 56,547 samples were tested for SARS CoV-2 by RT-PCR from March 24th 2020 till 15th November 2020. Of the total samples tested, 9754 were tested positive, with an average positivity rate of 17.25%. The mean age of the patients 38.21 years, with male to female ratio of 31. Among the various age groups, the majority affected were the middle ages (31-50 years) constituting around 38.77% (n = 3782) of the total cases followed by 15 -30 years (31.48%, n=3071) &> 50 years (23.64% n = 2305) & was least in children (<14years) with 6.11% (n = 596). Among the COVID -19 positives, 64.5% (n=6295) were asymptomatic & only 35.5% (n=3459) were symptomatic. Of the symptomatic patients, 81.1% (n=2805) presented with mild, 17.7 %( n=612) cases moderate, and only around 1.12% (n=39) had severe COVID - 19 disease. Of the severe cases, majority belong to the age group 31-50 (38.46%, n = 17), followed by 15-30 (15.3%, n=11). The monthly trend showed an increasing trend up to September, with maximum positivity rate of 38%, followed by a decline during October (14.7%) & November (5.8%) Conclusions: In this study of 9754 patients with confirmed COVID-19 in Odisha, the characteristic findings included younger age, male predominance, high proportion of asymptomatic patients & a declining trend in the positivity rate over the months