The epidemiological and clinical characteristics of COVID‐19 patients admitted to a Fangcang shelter hospital in Beijing before the change in China's prevention and control policy

Abstract In November 2022, a large number of Omicron infections suddenly appeared in Beijing, but the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of the epidemic cases were unknown. We collected the data on COVID‐19 cases in Fangcang Hospital in Beijing from November 20, 2022, to December 8, 2022, and analyzed the epidemiological and clinical characteristics. Of the enrolled study, 85.9% were asymptomatic and 14.1% were mild. Epidemiological data showed that the transmission speed of the Omicron variant was fast and the transmission range was wide, large‐scale infections occurred in both rural and urban areas, and all age groups were susceptible to the Omicron variant. In addition, antipyretics and cough drugs were the two most used drugs, because 51.3% and 22.7% of patients had fever and cough, respectively, and 10.3% of patients took hypnotics. Furthermore, the proportion of patients with chronic diseases was low (13.9%), while the vaccination rate (71.2%) was relatively high. Based on the results, we found that most mild and asymptomatic cases did not need treatment, indicating that home isolation is correct and feasible. Although SARS‐CoV‐2 variants have characteristics such as high infectivity and immune‐escape ability, the public should not be too afraid of COVID‐19 infection; appropriate measures such as wearing masks and maintaining social distancing are sufficient to prevent reinfection.