• Jeremy A W Gold, Karen K Wong, Christine M Szablewski, Priti R Patel, John Rossow, Juliana da Silva, Pavithra Natarajan, Sapna Bamrah Morris, Fanfair Robyn Neblett RN, Jessica Rogers-Brown, Beau B Bruce, Sean D Browning, Alfonso C Hernandez-Romieu, Nathan W Furukawa, Mohleen Kang, Mary E Evans, Nadine Oosmanally, Melissa Tobin-D'Angelo, Cherie Drenzek, David J Murphy, Julie Hollberg, James M Blum, Robert Jansen, David W Wright, William M Sewell, Jack D Owens, Benjamin Lefkove, Frank W Brown, Deron C Burton, Timothy M Uyeki, Stephanie R Bialek, and Brendan R Jackson.
• MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep. 2020 May 8; 69 (18): 545-550.

AbstractSARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), was first detected in the United States during January 2020 (1). Since then, >980,000 cases have been reported in the United States, including >55,000 associated deaths as of April 28, 2020 (2). Detailed data on demographic characteristics, underlying medical conditions, and clinical outcomes for persons hospitalized with COVID-19 are needed to inform prevention strategies and community-specific intervention messages. For this report, CDC, the Georgia Department of Public Health, and eight Georgia hospitals (seven in metropolitan Atlanta and one in southern Georgia) summarized medical record-abstracted data for hospitalized adult patients with laboratory-confirmed* COVID-19 who were admitted during March 2020. Among 305 hospitalized patients with COVID-19, 61.6% were aged <65 years, 50.5% were female, and 83.2% with known race/ethnicity were non-Hispanic black (black). Over a quarter of patients (26.2%) did not have conditions thought to put them at higher risk for severe disease, including being aged ≥65 years. The proportion of hospitalized patients who were black was higher than expected based on overall hospital admissions. In an adjusted time-to-event analysis, black patients were not more likely than were nonblack patients to receive invasive mechanical ventilation† (IMV) or to die during hospitalization (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.63; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.35-1.13). Given the overrepresentation of black patients within this hospitalized cohort, it is important for public health officials to ensure that prevention activities prioritize communities and racial/ethnic groups most affected by COVID-19. Clinicians and public officials should be aware that all adults, regardless of underlying conditions or age, are at risk for serious illness from COVID-19.

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