Rapid shortening of survival duration in early fatal cases of COVID-19, Wuhan, China

Michael Nevels; Yuzhou Zhang; Hilary Bambrick; Shilu Tong; Stephen B Lambert; Wenbiao Hu

doi:10.1017/exp.2020.73

Rapid shortening of survival duration in early fatal cases of COVID-19, Wuhan, China

Exp Results. 2021 Jan 11:2:e6. doi: 10.1017/exp.2020.73. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Michael Nevels¹, Yuzhou Zhang², Hilary Bambrick², Shilu Tong^{2

3}, Stephen B Lambert⁴, Wenbiao Hu²

Affiliations

¹ University of St Andrews, Biomolecular Sciences Building, Fife, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, KY16 9ST.
² School of Public Health and Social Work, Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane 4059, Queensland, Australia.
³ Shanghai Children's Medical Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai200127, China.
⁴ National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, The Australian National University, Canberra0200, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.

Abstract

Severe COVID-19 cases place immediate pressure on hospital resources. To assess this, we analysed survival duration in the first 39 fatal cases in Wuhan, China. Time from onset and hospitalization to death declined rapidly, from ~40 to 7 days, and ~25 to 4 days, respectively, in the outbreak's first month.

Keywords: COVID-19; Wuhan; fatal cases; survival duration.