Methods
All adult patients hospitalized in a COVID-19 first-line hospital in
Paris, France, from January 25th, 2020 to April 30th, 2020 were
included. All patients were tested by systematic mPCR testing if they
presented Influenza-like illness (ILI) symptoms, according to the eCDC
definition, and required hospitalization. The two mPCR assays used
during the study period, the QIAstat-Dx SARS-CoV-2 respiratory panel,
Qiagen [8], and the BioFire FilmArray RP2+, BioMérieux [9] allow
for detecting a wide range of viral and atypical bacterial respiratory
targets, including influenza A and B, parainfluenza virus,
rhinoviruses/enteroviruses, RSV, metapneumovirus, adenovirus, human
coronaviruses (229E, HKU1, OC43, and NL63), Mycoplasma pneumoniae, and
Bordetella pertussis. According to the French national definition, a
specific SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR for at-risk patients was performed, starting
from March 10th, 2020, when systematic testing for SARS-CoV-2 infection
began. During this period, three SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR assays were used: the
WHO recommended in-house RT-PCR assay, the RealStar® SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR
kit (Altona, Germany), and the Cobas® SARS-CoV-2 assay (Roche
Diagnostics, USA). All these assays provided similar performance and
limit of detection [10,11]. Demographic, clinical, and biological
features were prospectively collected in the Emergency Department (ED)
and retrospectively from the other units. Baseline characteristics
within each group were summarized using appropriate descriptive
statistics. The statistical analysis was performed using Stata15. The
research was approved by the local ethic committee N° CER-2020-6.