Epidemiology and Prognosis of COVID-19 Patients in the First to Third Waves of the Epidemic in Southern Fars Province, Iran

Covid-19 epidemic is the most important global health problem. The aim of this study was to compare the epidemiological status waves of Covid-19 in the southern Fars, Iran.

This descriptive study with secondary data analysis of 47161 outpatients and hospitalized Covid-19 from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Medical Care Monitoring Center (MCMC) of Jahrom University of Medical Sciences from the beginning of March to 2020 to the end of May 2021. During this period, three waves occurred in Jahrom city.

A total of 41421 patients(87.82%) were outpatients and 5740 patients (12.18%) were hospitalized. Most cases in the first and third waves were in the age group of 20-49 years and in the second wave were 50-69 years (p <0.001).The percentage of patients who died in the first to third waves were 8%, 10.4% and 4.1%, respectively(p <0.001). People with high blood pressure (27.9%) and heart disease (21%) are the most hospitalized. In general, the most common clinical symptoms were dyspnea (52.3%), cough(44%) and fever(36.2%). The proportion of patients with po2<93% in all three waves were 33.7%, 47.5% and 32.1%, respectively and the proportion of patients receiving oxygen was 1.6, 56.9 and 42.3%, respectively.

The symptoms of Covid-19 in patients admitted in three waves were not much different and were almost similar in terms of disease severity. The increase in deaths in the second wave is mostly due to differences in age groups or people with underlying diseases.