Early Hospitalization Improves the Covid-19 Patients’ Prognosis

Abstract

The COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan has subsided but the world is still suffering from it. We present our experience gained during this outbreak from city and hospital perspectives which might inform others to make evidence-based decisions to tackle this devastating pandemic more effectively. We studied the counter-measures adopted by Wuhan Government and analyzed the city’s new coronavirus infected disease patient’s data obtained from the National Health Commission and one re-purposed hospital to accommodate COVID-19 patients of the counter-measures for the COVID-19 outbreak. There was a significant drop of new-patient after February 18th, 2020. Patients with disease-onset after February 4th had shorter onset to admission days than those with onset before February 4th; and also had less critical-illness and mortality rates. This was due to quicker hospitalization after February 4th. The scores of PCR results at diagnosis, the national early warning score and the time-to-death were not significantly different for critical-illness patients whose onset before vs. after February 4th. The critical and death rates can be decreased by early hospitalization and oxygen therapy for less severe novel coronavirus-infected pneumonia within 7 days after disease onset.