3.1 Comorbidities
Patients with major comorbidities admitted during the periods April 2021 and January 2022 include hypertension (49%, 34%), diabetes (27% each) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (24%, 11%) as shown in Figure 1. At least one comorbidity was present in 70% of the patients admitted with infection with the Delta variant, whereas 52% of the patients with Omicron infection had comorbidities. Amongst the patients admitted in both periods, 31% were smokers during the Omicron variant as compared to only 11% in the Delta variant (p>0.05).
Oxygen was required for the treatment of the disease in 75% of the patients with Delta variant and 61% of the patients with Omicron variant, however had no significant association (p>0.05). As shown in Table 1, amongst the patients who survived during the Delta wave, most of the patients had a stay for more than 7 days (52.6%); whereas during the Omicron infection, patients were usually admitted for less than 7 days (78.9%).