Background: In December 2019, pneumonia associated with the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) emerged in Wuhan, China. Its effects on the national and global economies have been tremendous. There is limited evidence on treatment costs and effects of comorbidities on treatment costs, which are crucial inputs for policymakers. Objective: The main objective of this study is to retrospectively determine the direct costs of hospitalization due to COVID-19 treatment and their association with comorbidities. Methods: This is a retrospective study conducted at two prominent research and training hospitals in İzmir, Turkey during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. First hospitalization costs of 2,067 patients with COVID-19 were analyzed. Second association of comorbidities with hospitalization costs of 532 patients with COVID-19 was estimated. Results: Analyses based on the whole sample of 2,067 patients showed that the average hospitalization cost was $1,432.3 (PPP $4,994.7). Treatment cost is higher for male patients and increases with age and intensive care unit admissions. The average length of hospitalization was 10.6 days (SD=8.5) and the average length of ICU hospitalization was 9.9 (SD=9.6). The average daily hospitalization cost was $135.25 (PPP $471.63). Analyses showed that sex, age, intensive care unit hospitalization, myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular and transient ischemic attacks, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and chronic kidney disease were found significantly associated with hospitalization costs. Conclusion: COVID-19 is a novel pandemic that causes morbidity and mortality at considerable levels. A holistic approach to fight the pandemic requires unraveling not only medical but also financial aspects.

Aims Delay and false positivity in PCR test results have necessitated accurate chest CT reporting for management of patients with COVID-19 suspected symptoms. Pandemic related workload and level of experience on covid-dedicated chest CT scans might have effected diagnostic performance of on-call radiologists. The aim of this study is to reveal the interpretation errors in chest-CT reports of COVID-19 suspected patients admitted to the ER. Methods COVID-19 dedicated chest-CT scans which were performed between March and June 2020 were re-evaluated and compared with the former reports of these scans and PCR test results. CT scan results were classified into four groups. Parenchymal involvement ratios, radiology departments’ workload, COVID-19 related educational activities have examined. Results Out of 5721 Chest-CT scans, 783 CTs belonging to 664 patients (340 female, 324 male) were included to this study. RT-PCR test was positive in 398; negative in 385 cases. PCR positivity was found to be highest in “normal” and “typical for covid” groups whereas lowest in “atypical for covid” and “not covid” groups. 5-25% parenchymal involvement ratio was found in 84.2% of the cases. Regarding number of chest CT scans performed, radiologists’ workload have found to be increased six-folds compared to the same months of the former year. With the re-evaluation, a total of 145 IEs (18.5%) have been found. IEs were mostly precipitated in the first two months (88.3%) and mostly in “not covid” class (60%) regardless of PCR positivity. COVID-19 and radiology entitled educational activities along with the ER admission rates within the first two months of pandemic have seem to be related with the decline of IEs within time. Conclusion COVID-19 pandemic made a great impact on radiology departments with an inevitable burden of daily chest-CT reporting. This workload and concomitant factors have possible effects on diagnostic challenges in COVID-19 pneumonia.