Features of Covid-19 patients detected during community screening: A study from a rural hospital in Sri Lanka.

ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT We studied the clinical course and virus shedding of all patients referred to Welikanda Hospital, in one month. There were 53 positives for Covid-19 by PCR. 24 (45%) were male, with an age range of 11-94 years. Of these, 41 (77%) were asymptomatic, 9 had cough, 4 had sore throat and six had fever. Pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and capillary oxygen were normal in all. A proportion of them had poor prognostic factors asthma (n=4), hypertension (n=11), age above 60 years (n=9), and diabetes (n=11). Lymphopenia was seen in 20 and elevated CRP in 14. Viral shedding continued beyond 14 days in several persons and continued in symptomatic patients for a significantly longer time than asymptomatic patients. Covid-19 was an asymptomatic or mild illness in this group of people. Several of them continued to be RT-PCR positive even after 14 days. Such cases are an important source of community spread.