The epidemiological and clinical characteristic of COVID-19 patients
admitted to a Fangcang shelter hospital in Beijing before the change of
China's prevention and control policy
Abstract
Background: November 2022, a large number of Omicron infections
suddenly appeared in Beijing, but the epidemiological and clinical
characteristics of the epidemic cases are unknown. Methods: We
collected the data of COVID-19 cases in Fangcang hospital in Beijing
from November 20, 2022 to December 8, 2022, and analyzed the
epidemiological and clinical characteristics. We used descriptive
statistical methods to explore the basic characteristics, used
parametric distribution to calculate the time to events, and used ArcGIS
to explore the distribution patterns of COVID-19 cases in different
areas. Results: There were 1,307 COVID-19 cases in the Fangcang
shelter hospital enrolled the study, among which 85.9% were
asymptomatic and 14.1% were mild. Epidemiological data showed that the
transmission speed Omicron variant is fast and the transmission range is
wide, large-scale infections have occurred in both rural and urban
areas, and all age groups are susceptible to Omicron variant. In
addition, antipyretics and cough drugs were the two most commonly used
drugs, because 51.3% and 22.7% patients had fever and cough,
respectively, and 10.3% patients took hypnotics. Furthermore, the
proportion of patients with chronic diseases was low (13.9%), while the
vaccination rate (71.2%) was relatively high. Conclusion:
Based on the results of Fangcang shelter hospitals, we found that most
mild and asymptomatic cases did not need treatment, which indicates that
home isolation is correct and feasible. However, the transmission speed
Omicron variant is fast and the transmission range is wide, and all age
groups are susceptible to Omicron variant; therefore, the awareness of
prevention and control should not be relaxed.