SARS-Cov-2 Viral Load as an Indicator for COVID-19 Patients’ Hospital Stay
Abstract
Background/objective
The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic poses a global threat to the public health. There is a challenge in measuring the patient’s length of hospital stay and managing the healthcare resources to handle the situation successfully. Our objective is to use the qPCR cycle of threshold (Ct) as a tool in evaluating the severity of the infection and hence the length of hospital stay to better utilize and manage the healthcare resources.
Methods
This cross sectional study was carried out on 306 patients who admitted to COVID-19 care centers in Kingdom of Bahrain from 20 th March 2020 to 5 th April 2020. Standard qPCR was used to estimate the viral load and data were analyzed to investigate the relationship between Ct values and various variables.
Results
Out of 306 patients, 2 deaths, 1 active stable case and 303 recovered cases were reported. Ct value was significantly and negatively associated (P value <0.001) with length of hospital stay. The viral clearance was also inversely associated with the Ct values.
Conclusion
Ct value was inversely associated with hospital stay duration (and time to viral clearance), higher the Ct value is indicative of faster time to viral clearance. This association could help to better manage the infection and resources allocation.
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