COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, has wreaked havoc on global economies and healthcare systems around the world. The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March 2020. [1] Waves of new infection and new, more transmissible SARS-CoV-2 variants have led to protracted lockdown regulations in many countries. [2][3][4] While lockdown has been an effective method of 'flattening the curve' , it is not a socially or economically sustainable solution for the long term. The ability of healthcare systems to predict and plan for surges in infection has become crucial.The South African (SA) healthcare system is plagued by a geographical maldistribution of resources. There are 125 390 general hospital beds currently available for SA's population of 60 million. [5] Considering the country's overall high burden of disease, identification of potential risk factors or markers that predict length of hospital stay (LoS) in COVID-19 patients may be of great benefit to health authorities and may assist in triage and contingency planning.Abnormal laboratory parameters identified at admission have been reported to predict in-hospital severity of disease and mortality. [6] Lymphopenia, anaemia, thrombocytopenia, neutrophilia and eleva-This open-access article is distributed under Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC 4.0.
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