0000000000376794
AUTHOR
Jelena Storozenko
Clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients in Latvia under low incidence in Spring 2020
ABSTRACTBackgroundCOVID-19 is a new infectious disease with severe disease course and high mortality in some groups. Blood tests on admission to the hospital can be useful for stratification of patients and timely correction. Our study investigated the clinical features of COVID-19 patients in Latvia and differences in blood tests in groups with different disease severity.MethodsThe retrospective study included 100 patients hospitalized in Riga East Clinical University Hospital in Spring 2020. The severity of the disease course was classified by the presence of pneumonia and its combination with respiratory failure. We have assessed blood cells’ count, hemoglobin, hematocrit, erythrocyte se…
First Report on the Latvian SARS-CoV-2 Isolate Genetic Diversity
Remaining a major healthcare concern with nearly 29 million confirmed cases worldwide at the time of writing, novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused more than 920 thousand deaths since its outbreak in China, December 2019. First case of a person testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection within the territory of the Republic of Latvia was registered on 2nd of March 2020, 9 days prior to the pandemic declaration by WHO. Since then, more than 277,000 tests were carried out confirming a total of 1,464 cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the country as of 12th of September 2020. Rapidly reacting to the spread of the infection, an ongoing sequenci…