Objective To understand the new characteristics of clinical symptoms of patients with mild COVID-19 during the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron, and provide basis for better prevention and treatment of COVID-19.Methods A cross-sectional retrospective study was conducted with WeChat questionnaire among medical staff with COVID-19 recently, who come from the Third Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University and The Second Affiliated Hospital of Army Medical University.Results A total of 630 valid questionnaires was received. 99.2% of infected people had been vaccinated against COVID-19. 2.4% of infected persons developed pneumonia and 2.1% were hospitalized. The most common symptoms after infection were coughing (89.7%), fever (83.0%), fatigue (84.1%), headache and dizziness (75.7%), muscle soreness (72.7%), sore throat (62.1%), nasal congestion and runny nose (60.6%), expectoration (71.6%), anorexia (58.0%) and taste loss (40.2%). The incidence of gastrointestinal symptoms and cardiovascular symptoms was relatively low (17.8% and 31.0% respectively). The severity of self-reported symptoms of most infected persons was moderate or severe. The proportion of serious symptoms reported was coughing (23.8%), sore throat (27.0%), headache and dizziness (17.9%). The severity of symptoms reported by young group (<35 years old) was significantly higher than that of older group (>35 years old). Fever was the highest at 38 to 39 ℃ (52.4%). 77.0% of fever sustained for 1 to 3 days. At the time of investigation, the viral detection turned negative in 60.6% of infected people, and the time of turning negative was mostly 7 to 10 days. More than half of the infected persons still had different symptoms, among which cough (43.7%) and fatigue (23.8%) were the most common.Conclusions Most subjects with mild COVID-19 infection have obvious upper respiratory tract and systemic symptoms, the most prominent is the high incidence of cough, which has become a new feature of omicron infection. And most of the infected people have moderate to severe symptoms, and the younger ones have more severer symptoms.
Objective To understand the changing patterns and characteristics of the number of patients hospitalized with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) before, during, and in the post-epidemic period of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Association between acute respiratory infections and hospitalization of patients with AECOPD. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted to count the patients hospitalized for AECOPD in the Department of Respiratory Medicine of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University from July 2017 to June 2024. The pattern of change in the number of AECOPD hospitalizations and the associations with patients with respiratory tract infections in outpatient emergency departments were analyzed. Results During the COVID-19 epidemic, the number of hospitalizations of patients with AECOPD did not increase compared with the pre-epidemic period. Instead, it significantly decreased, especially in the winter and spring peaks (P<0.05). The only exception was a peak AECOPD hospitalization in the summer of 2022. COPD inpatient mortality and non-medical discharge rates tended to increase during the epidemic compared with the pre-epidemic period. Analysis of the curve of change in the number of patients with respiratory infections in our outpatient emergency departments during the same period revealed a downward trend in the number of patients with respiratory infections during the epidemic and an explosive increase in the number of patients with respiratory infections in the post epidemic period, whose average monthly number was more than twice as high as that during the epidemic. Correlation analysis of the number of patients with respiratory infections between AECOPD hospitalizations and outpatient emergency departments showed that there was a good correlation between the two in the pre-epidemic and post-epidemic periods, and the correlation between the two in the post-epidemic period was more significant in particular (r=0.84-0.91, P<0.001).In contrast, there was no significant correlation in 2021 and 2022 during the epidemic (r=0.24 and 0.50, P>0.05 ). The most common respiratory infection pathogens among AECOPD hospitalized patients during the post-epidemic period were influenza virus, COVID-19 virus, and human rhinovirus, respectively. Conclusions The pandemic period of COVID-19 infection did not show an increase in the number of AECOPD hospitalizations but rather a trend towards fewer hospitalizations. Respiratory infections were strongly associated with the number of AECOPD hospitalizations in the pre- and post-pandemic periods, while the correlation between the two was poorer during the pandemic period. Influenza virus was the most important respiratory infection pathogen for AECOPD during the post-epidemic period.