First and second waves of coronavirus disease-19: A comparative study in hospitalized patients in Reus, Spain

Abstract

Many countries have seen a two-wave pattern in reported cases of coronavirus disease-19 during the 2020 pandemic, with a first wave during spring followed by the current second wave in late summer and autumn. Empirical data show that the characteristics of the effects of the virus do vary between the two periods. Differences in age range and severity of the disease have been reported, although the comparative characteristics of the two waves still remain largely unknown. Those characteristics are compared in this study using data from two equal periods of 3 and a half months. The first period, between 15th March and 30th June, corresponding to the entire first wave, and the second, between 1st July and 15th October, corresponding to part of the second wave, still present at the time of writing this article. Two hundred and four patients were hospitalized during the first period, and 264 during the second period. Patients in the second wave were younger and the duration of hospitalization and case fatality rate were lower than those in the first wave. In the second wave, there were more children, and pregnant and post-partum women. The most frequent signs and symptoms in both waves were fever, dyspnea, pneumonia, and cough, and the most relevant comorbidities were cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and chronic neurological diseases. Patients from the second wave more frequently presented renal and gastrointestinal symptoms, were more often treated with non-invasive mechanical ventilation and corticoids, and less often with invasive mechanical ventilation, conventional oxygen therapy and anticoagulants. Several differences in mortality risk factors were also observed. These results might help to understand the characteristics of the second wave and the behaviour and danger of SARS-CoV-2 in the Mediterranean area and in Western Europe. Further studies are needed to confirm our findings.

Increased mortality among individuals hospitalised with COVID-19 during the second wave in South Africa

“…Additionally, improved testing capacities in the second wave could have resulted in more mild cases being identified (22,23,31,32); and healthcare systems in many countries could have been better prepared in the second wave, offering timely treatment of severe cases (20,22,30). Decreased mortality could also be related to the greater use of masks which, theoretically, could reduce the viral inoculum and perhaps disease severity (33).…”

Perinatal Mental Health during COVID-19 Pandemic: An Integrative Review and Implications for Clinical Practice

“…The studies included in our review showed a great deal of diversity. To minimize this factor as much as possible, we limited the review to papers on the first wave of COVID-19-between March and June 2020 [61,62]. We included only papers using validated tools and we focused only on symptoms of anxiety and depression; for clarity reasons, we did not analyze other psychological problems such as insomnia and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms.…”

Development and internal validation of a predictive model for COVID-19 mass screening based on symptoms and a simple olfactory test

“…This study was conducted at the beginning of the second wave of COVID-19 in our region (27). The 14day cumulative incidence of COVID-19 cases in the city of Reus increased gradually from 0.9 cases/100,000 inhabitants on 15 June to 376.09 cases/100,000 inhabitants on 24 August (28).…”