The result of the first large-scale study of the Central Government’s National Clinical Registry for COVID-19 (NCRC) data, released recently by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), states that hospital mortality among COVID patients in the country was higher among those admitted with chronic kidney and liver disease, malignancy and tuberculosis.
Previous studies have already indicated that diabetes mellitus and advanced age contribute to a higher percentage of mortality among COVID patients.
NCRC’s stock-taking study of the pandemic showed that of the 29,509 patients enrolled for the study, 3,794 (12.9%) were asymptomatic at the time of admission and were admitted due to conditions other than COVID-19 and later diagnosed with COVID-19 or developed COVID-19 during the course of hospitalisation.
More than half (54%) of the admitted patients required oxygen support during their hospital course and 7.8% required mechanical ventilation. The median duration of hospital stay among the patients was 7 days and of the patients who expired, 86.4% died within the first 14 days of hospital stay.
Among the 25,715 (87.1%) patients who were admitted with symptoms, fever was the most common symptom (72.3%). Shortness of breath and dry cough were recorded in 48.9% and 45.5% of patients, respectively.
Some of the other symptoms were fatigue (20.7%), cough with sputum (14.5%), sore throat (13.5%), muscle ache (12.3%) and headache 232 (11.2%).
The study aims to describe the demographic and clinical profile and ascertain the determinants of outcome among hospitalised COVID-19 adult patients in India. It used a sample size of 29,509 hospitalised adult COVID-19 patients — between September 1, 2020, to October 26, 2021 — from 42 hospitals across the country. Supported by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the study has been accepted by the Quarterly Journal of Medicine, an international journal of medicine.
Titled “Vaccination saves lives: A real-time study of patients with chronic diseases and severe COVID-19 infection”, the study also highlighted the importance of anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in protecting against mortality. ”The current study gives us an insight into the trends in COVID treatment etc and clearly underlines the protection provided by COVID-19 vaccination against in-hospital mortality. COVID-19 vaccine, irrespective of its type, reduced the odds of death by 50% with one dose and by 60% with two doses,’’ a senior ICMR official said.
