Clinical outcomes of patients attending a flu clinic at a tertiary health-care facility in india during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Purpose: In response to ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic, flu clinics were set by most of the hospitals all over India to screen patients for the disease. The study aimed to find out treatment outcome of patients attending a flu clinic at a tertiary health-care facility. Methods: It is an observational study, cross-sectional in design. The study used data routinely collected at the flu clinic of a selected tertiary health-care facility of a selected state of India. Data collected between March 22, 2020, and May 31, 2020 were used for the study. Results: Among 3873 study participants, 364 (9.4%) required admission in COVID-19 isolation ward for testing, while 1536 (39.6%) were referred for further management and the rest being symptomatically managed or home quarantined. In multivariate multinomial logistic regression analysis, females, lockdown phases, symptomatic, severe acute respiratory illness patients, those with contact history with a COVID-19 case, chronic comorbidities, and health worker had significantly higher odds of being admitted in COVID-19 isolation ward compared to others. Those who belonged to the age group of 16–30 years had significantly lower odds of admission. On the other hand, age, sex, lockdown phases, native district COVID-19 risk category, symptom status, chronic comorbidity, contact history, travel history. and profession were significant predictors of referral for further management. Conclusion: Half of the study participants were home quarantined or symptomatically managed. Age, sex, symptom status, contact history, travel history, chronic comorbidity, and profession were significant predictors for their treatment outcome.