SARS-CoV-2 Positive Patients and the Associated Risk Factors During the Third Wave: A Study in a Tertiary Care Hospital of Punjab

Abstract

Background: SARS-CoV-2 has a high mutation rate, resulting in the emergence of multiple variants in a shorter
time frame, starting with Wuhan strain during first wave, then Delta during second wave and Omicron during
third wave. World faced distressing spread of novel corona virus. The reason for this study was to look at the third
flood of SARS-CoV-2, clinical highlights and risk factors in northern India.
Methods: This study involved 1,43,983 individuals for testing the presence of SARS-CoV-2 infection during January
2022 by RT-PCR. The epidemiological record was collected as per the guidelines of ICMR from the patient forms.
Results: A total of 12.24% individuals were found positive with mean age of 29±10 years. Large portion of positive
population (63.87%) was asymptomatic. Among the positive population, higher positivity rate was observed in
males (57.51%) with age band of 21-40 years (51.17%). Significant association (p value = <0.00001) was found
between positivity rate with age, gender and status (symptomatic/ asymptomatic). SARS-CoV-2 was shown to
be more prevalent in Patiala, (49.66%) district followed by Ludhiana (24.24%), Sangrur (10.06%), Mansa (7.06%),
Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (6.90%) and Malerkotla (2.08%) during second and third week of January 2022.
Hypertension and bronchial asthma were the most well-known comorbidities found in the current study.
Conclusion: In totality, current study showed positivity rate of 12.24% from large population size for SARS CoV-2
from period of 1st January 2022 to 31 January 2022. Current findings include younger age group (21-40 years), high
percent of asymptomatic individuals, less disease severity and a little need of hospitalization.