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.