Dynamics of COVID-19 outbreak in Poland: an epidemiological analysis of the first two months of the epidemic.

Raciborski, Filip; Pinkas, Jarosław; Jankowski, Mateusz; Sierpiński, Radosław; Zgliczyński, Wojciech S; Szumowski, Łukasz; Rakocy, Kamil; Wierzba, Waldemar; Gujski, Mariusz

INTRODUCTION Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. OBJECTIVES Our aim was to present an epidemiological analysis of the first two months (March and April 2020) of the COVID-19 epidemic in Poland. PATIENTS AND METHODS This analysis was based on data from epidemiological reports collected between March 4 and April 30, 2020, by the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate. These epidemiological reports include data on sociodemographic characteristics of new laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases, the number of COVID-19 related deaths, the number of recovered COVID-19 patients, as well as the number of laboratory tests performed. Results: From March 4 to April 30, 2020, a total of 12,877 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases were registered in Poland (55.7% women, mean age 50.6 (20.5) years). The RT-PCR test was performed on 338,000 patients. The notification rate for COVID-19 was 33.2 per 100,000 inhabitants. One-third of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases were among quarantined persons, 26.1% were related to the healthcare system (hospital or clinic), and 13.3% occurred in nursing homes. As of April 30, 2020, 644 COVID-19-related deaths were registered in Poland (46.5% women). The death rate for the whole country was 1.7 per 100,000 inhabitants. CONCLUSIONS Our data show higher notification rate for COVID-19 among women than men but men more likely to die from COVID-19. The notification rate for COVID-19 in Poland among women aged 45-54 years is two times higher than among men.