Profile of hospital admissions and deaths due to severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by COVID-19 in Piaui, Brazil: a descriptive study, 2020-2021

Objective: To describe the profile and temporal variation of hospital admissions and deaths due to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) caused by COVID-19 in Piaui, Brazil, according to place of hospitalization. Methods: We performed a descriptive study using data from the Influenza Surveillance Information System between 2020 and 2021. Case fatality ratio among hospital records with outcome and respective 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were calculated. Results: We included 12,649 individuals who were mostly male (57.1%), Black (61.2%) and had one or two comorbidities (30.5%). Case fatality ratio among hospital records with outcome was higher in the state's interior region than in its capital, with proportion of 44.1% (95%CI 42.0;46.3) for those who were hospitalized, 82.3% (95%CI 79.7;84.8) for those admitted to intensive care units and 96.6% (95%CI 94.9;97.8) for those undergoing invasive mechanical ventilation. Conclusion: The study enabled characterization of the profile of SARS hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in Piaui and demonstrated high case fatality ratio, among hospital records with outcome, which remained high during the study period, especially in the interior of the state.