This report characterizes a cohort of hospitalized adults with COVID-19 in Georgia in which black patients were overrepresented and one in four hospitalized patients had no high risk conditions.
Data were collected from a convenience sample of 305 patients at seven hospitals in metropolitan Atlanta (five community hospitals, one university hospital, and one public hospital) and one community hospital in southern Georgia.
Overall, the frequency of invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) and fatality did not differ by race, although black patients were disproportionately represented among hospitalized patients, reflecting greater severity of COVID-19 among this population. Approximately one quarter of patients had no high-risk conditions, and 5% of these patients died, suggesting that all adults, regardless of underlying conditions or age, are at risk for serious COVID-19–associated illness.
Other findings among the 305 patients include:
- Median age was 60 years (range = 23–95 years)
- 50.5% were female
- 284 (93%) were hospitalized in metropolitan Atlanta.
- 83.2% were black, 10.8% were non-Hispanic white, 2.7% were non-Hispanic Asian or Pacific Islander, and 3.4% were Hispanic
- 5.2% were current smokers
- 225 (73.8%) patients had conditions considered high-risk for severe COVID-19: 39.7% had diabetes, 25.6% had cardiovascular disease, 20.3% had chronic lung disease, 10.5% had asthma, 12.7% had severe obesity (BMI ≥40), and 67.5% had hypertension
- The median duration of hospitalization was 8.5 days
- Hospital duration increased with age
- Intensive care unit (ICU) admission occurred among 119 (39.0%) patients and increased significantly with age group: among patients aged ≥65 years, 53.8% were admitted to an ICU
- 92 (30.2%) patients received IMV, representing 77.3% of those admitted to an ICU
- Among 281 (92.1%) patients who were no longer hospitalized at the time of data abstraction, 48 (17.1%) died.
- Black patients were not more likely than were nonblack patients to receive IMV, to die, or to experience the composite outcome of IMV or death
- Among patients without high-risk conditions, 22.5% were admitted to the ICU, 15.0% received IMV, and 5.1% died while in the hospital
