Characteristics of Hospitalized Adults With COVID-19 in California

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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has resulted in increased hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) use. In the United States, few reports have characterized patients treated outside of the ICU.

Northern California was an early epicenter of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) community transmission in the United States.

We report hospitalization and ICU admissions from Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC), a regional integrated health care system serving 4.4 million members, constituting 30% of the area’s insured population.

Of 16,201 tests in adults, results from 1,299 patients (8.0%) were positive for SARS-CoV-2. Of these patients, 377 (29.0%) were treated as inpatients and 113 (8.7%) were treated in the ICU.

We performed a retrospective cohort study of adults (≥18 years) with nasal/throat swabs positive for SARS-CoV-2 by polymerase chain reaction hospitalized between March 1, 2020, and March 31, 2020, at 21 KPNC hospitals.

Tests were approved by infectious disease physicians based on public health and local guidelines. Patients were triaged according to clinician judgment. No patients were lost to follow-up.

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