Clinical and Hematological Characteristics of COVID- 19 at Presentation: Egyptian Multicenter Descriptive Study

Background: Since the Ministry of Health and Population [MOHP] in Egypt had declared the appearance of the first COVID- 19 confirmed case in Egypt on February 14, 2020. Strict measures were taken to control the virus spread, including the identification of some centers for triage and others for quarantine.The aim of the work: The goal of our research was to determine the clinical and hematological results of COVID-19 confirmed patients at two specialized triage hospitals.Patients and Methods: This was an observational prospective cohort in which we included all adult patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 by RT-PCR of samples taken by nasopharyngeal swabs attended to two Egyptian hospitals that, assigned by MOHP as a triage center for COVID-19, in the period between 5th April to 27th August 2020. The clinical characteristics and hematological findings at presentation were studied.Results: This study included 200 consecutive COVID-19 confirmed patients from both hospitals, fever [75%] was the main presenting symptom followed by cough [71%] then dyspnea [20%]. [41%] of the patients had lymphopenia, [5%] had lymphocytosis, [11.5%] had neutrophilia, [2%] had thrombocytopenia, and [30.5%] had anemia.Conclusion: COVID-19 could be presented typically by pulmonary or atypically by various extrapulmonary manifestations in addition to different hematological laboratory findings.