Clinical characteristics and progression of COVID‐19 confirmed cases admitted to a single British clinical centre—A brief case series report

Objectives In December 2019, a pneumonia‐like illness was first reported in Wuhan‐China caused by a new coronavirus named corona virus disease‐2019 (COVID‐19) which then spread to cause a global pandemic. Most of the available data in the literature is derived from Chinese cohorts and we aim to contribute the clinical experience of a single British clinical centre with the characteristics of a British cohort. Design A prospective case series. Setting: A single clinical centre in the UK. Methods: We have collected the demographics and medical characteristics of all COVID‐19–positive cases admitted over 2‐week period. All cases were diagnosed by PCR. Results Total of 71 COVID‐19 patients were included in this case series. Majority of patients (75%) were ≥75 years old and 58% were men. Pre‐existing comorbidities was common (85% of patients). Most patients presented with respiratory symptoms such as fever (59%), shortness of breath (56%) and cough (55%). Gastrointestinal symptoms were second‐most common presenting compliant such as diarrhoea (10%) and abdominal pain (7%). Opacification in chest X‐rays was demonstrated in 45% of patients. All patients received supportive treatment and no specific antiviral therapy was administered in this cohort. So far, 18 (25%) patients have fully recovered, 9 patients (13%) escalated to a higher level of care and 10 (14%) have died. Patients who died were non‐significantly older than those who have recovered (78.0 vs 69.2 years, P = .15) but they had a significantly higher clinical frailty scores (5.75 vs 3.36, P = .005). Conclusion This case series demonstrated that the characteristics of British COVID‐19 patients were generally similar to what is published in literature, although we report more gastrointestinal symptoms at presentation. We have identified frailty as a risk factor for adverse outcome in COVID‐19 patients and suggest that it should be included in the future vaccination recommendations.