A COVID-19 case surveillance between January 22-May 30 finds 5% of people admitted to a hospital died. Hospitalisation was six times higher and deaths 12 times higher among patients with reported underlying conditions than those without underlying conditions.

A new report on case surveillance of COVID-19 in the U.S. between January 22 and May 30 has found that 5% of people who were admitted to a hospital died. Deaths were 12 times higher among patients with reported underlying conditions (19.5%) compared with those without reported underlying conditions (1.6%). The results were published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

Till May 30, there were 17,61,503 million cases and 1,03,700 deaths in the U.S. The number of patients admitted to a hospital stood at 184,673 (14%),while  29,837 (2%) were admitted to an ICU, and 71,116 (5%) died. Hospitalisations were six times higher among patients with a reported underlying condition (45.4%) than those without reported underlying conditions (7.6%).

Cardiovascular disease (32%), diabetes (30%), and chronic lung disease (18%) were the three most common underlying health conditions. Hospitalisations were six times higher and deaths 12 times higher among those with underlying conditions than in those with no underlying conditions.

Symptom status

Symptom status (symptomatic versus asymptomatic) was reported for 616,541 (47%) cases. Among these cases, the number of people who were asymptomatic was over 22,000 (4%). But testing was mainly been for people with symptoms as initial guidance recommended testing of only symptomatic persons and was hospital-based. The data on symptoms is also incomplete.

Among 373,883 cases with data on individual symptoms, 31,191 (8%) persons reported loss of smell or taste. But an overwhelming 70% had fever, cough, or shortness of breath, 36% reported muscle aches, and 34% reported headache.

Incidence of COVID-19

When data for 1,320,488 (94%) cases were analysed, the researchers found that the median age was 48 years, and incidence was 403.6 cases per 100,000 population. The incidence was similar among females (406.0) and males (401.1).

Incidentally, those in the age group 40-49 and 50-59 had higher incidence of 541.6 and 550.5, respectively, which is much higher than people aged 60–69 years (478.4) and 70–79 years (464.2). Incidence was highest among persons aged ≥80 years (902.0) and lowest among children aged ≤9 years (51.1).