Introduction
A cluster of pneumonia of unknown origin was identified in Wuhan, China,
in December 20191. The disease (named coronavirus
disease 2019 (COVID-19)) was caused by a novel coronavirus termed severe
acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and was declared a
public health emergency of international concern by the World Health
Organization (WHO)2. In the WHO European Region,
COVID-19 surveillance was implemented on January 2020 and nine European
countries reported 47 cases, being France and Germany the countries with
more confirmed cases. At that time only two cases from Spain were
reported3. Since then, larger series of cases from
different countries (China, United States and Italy) and different
settings (from long-term care facilities to intensive care units –ICU-)
were reported with some differences in demographics, comorbidities and
mortality rates4-7.
In this study, we describe the clinical features and outcome of the
first 100 sequentially admitted patients with laboratory confirmed
COVID-19 to the Hospital de Olot i comarcal de la Garrotxa (HOCG), a
regional hospital in Spain, during the first wave of the pandemic.