Exposure
Exposure of interest were drug treatment with corticosteroids, antibiotics, or anticoagulants. According to the COVID-19 hospital protocol a respiratory rate greater than 25 breaths per minute, an oxygen requirement of more than 5 liters, or a rapidly increasing oxygen requirement prompted patients to receive 6mg dexamethasone daily for 10 days as per hospital protocol (Annex 1). If the patient is discharged from the hospital prior to these 10 days, dexamethasone was prescribed as home medication for the remaining days. Some patients received a different corticosteroid (hydrocortisone, methylprednisolone, and prednisolone) due to treatment for other illnesses.
Antibiotics were not incorporated into the COVID-19 hospital protocol but were administered preventively or on suspicion of a bacterial infection, ceftriaxone 2000mg was primarily used. A small group of patients received a different antibiotic (amoxicillin, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, ceftazidime, ceftriaxone, ciprofloxacin, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, doxycycline, and vancomycin) than ceftriaxone due to treatment for other illnesses.
Hospitalized patients with suspicion or confirmed COVID-19 were administered dalteparin 5000IE daily, while patients with a bodyweight of 100kg or more were given 7500IE daily. Only if the patients were already using certain anticoagulants was this deviated from.