COVID-19 in a tertiary hospital from Romania: Epidemiology, preparedness and clinical challenges

The laboratory diagnostic for COVID-19 is performed by Real- Time PCR with manual nucleic acid extraction technique (MasterPure ™ Complete DNA and RNA Purification Kit”, Lucigen) and RNA detection and quantification with “genesig®Real- Time PCR assay”/Primer design™ Ltd, in vitro Real- Time PCR diagnostic test for Coronavirus (COVID-19), targeting RNA dependent RNA polymerase -RdRp) on a Real-time PCR Light Scanner 32/LS32 (Idaho Technology, DOOR). The first cases were addmited in our hospital on March 9 (3 cases from the same family) and until March 26 there were 126 hospitalized patients, with a median age of 43,5 years (range 3–87 years), and a male/female sex ratio of 1.04. Apart from the already known [1] clinical features of COVID-19 (fever, cough, shortness of breath, myalgia, sore throat, headache or diarrhea) a sudden onset of anosmia and/or dysgeusia was registered in 20% of patients, all mild cases.