Age and Sex Differences Among Mildly Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Patients with Omicron Infection in 2022 in Shanghai, China

Abstract

Can Feng,1,* Shihui Hong,1,* Rong Fan,1,* Xinjie Shi,2 Zhao Ma,3 Changgui Li,4 Chenghao Liu,5 Cong He,6 Min Fan,1 Ruiping Wang7,8 1Department of Cardiology, Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 200437, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Neurology, Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 200437, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 200437, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Hematology, Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 200437, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Endocrinology, Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 200437, People’s Republic of China; 6Department of Gastroenterology, Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 200437, People’s Republic of China; 7Clinical Research Center, Shanghai Skin Diseases Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 8School of Public Health, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Min Fan; Ruiping Wang, Email [email protected]; [email protected]: An epidemic of the Omicron variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) began in March 2022, and over 600,000 cases were confirmed until early May 2022 in Shanghai, China. Data on Omicron infections are available in other countries, but the clinical features of patients in the Chinese population, especially in Shanghai, are still lacking. We collected data from a subset of asymptomatic and mildly ill patients to learn about the age and sex disparity of Omicron infection based on changes in cycle threshold values.Methods: The basic information of 325 patients who were consecutively admitted to the Shanghai Geriatrics Center was collected through medical records, and patients were tested for viral nucleic acid carriage using nasal swab samples during hospitalization. SAS 9.4 was used for data analysis, and a p value 1.5 was slightly higher among male patients than among female patients (odds ratio (OR) = 1.06, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.68– 1.66), and patients aged 1.5 than patients aged ≥ 60 years. Ct values were more variable in the early stages of infection and stabilized in the later stages of infection.Conclusion: Among patients with mild illness or asymptomatic infection, the Ct value is a good, timely, and cost-effective method to reflect the recovery progress of patients. The slope of Ct changes was steeper among younger patients and male patients, which indicates faster disease recovery.Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, cycle threshold, Omicron, RT‒PCR, nucleic acid tests

Keywords

• covid-19
• sars-cov-2
• cycle threshold
• omicron
• rt‒pcr
• nucleic acid tests