Population
230 patients were sampled to undertake the survey. Thirty (13.0%)
refused or never answered: 27 belonged to group C, 3 to group B.
Two-hundred participants were included: 168 survivors (194 [181-198]
days after COVID-19 onset) and 32 deceased. Median age was 56 years
(43-69), 116 (58.0%) were male and 188 were of European ancestry
(94.0%). The distribution among SARS-CoV-2 Ct groups was as follows: 55
(27.5%) in A, 55 (27.5%) in B and 90 (45.0%) in C.
Participants’clinical characteristics are shown in Tab.1.
The groups differed in terms of age (A: 64 years [39-78]; B: 57
years [50-67]; C: 52 years [40-63]; p=0.017) and time from
COVID-19 onset to diagnostic swab (A: 3 days [2-5]; B: 5 days
[3-10]; C: 5 days [3-10]; p=0.011). More participants in A
presented at least one comorbidity (A: 72.7%; B: 58.2%; C: 45.5%;
p<0.01). No difference was observed in specific comorbidities
with the exception of active tobacco use (A: 21.8%; B: 3.6%; C:
10.0%; p=0.01) and hypertension (A: 49.1%; B: 23.6%; C: 17.8%;
p<0.01). Linear Ct value inversely correlated with the number
of comorbidities per patient even after adjusting for time from COVID-19
onset to swab collection (β -0.21, p<0.01; see Suppl.Fig.2).