Epidemiologial Analysis of Patients Presenting to a West London District General Hospital Requiring Admission with Covid-19

BackgroundCoronavirus has lead to significant morbidity and mortality both within the UK and worldwide. We hypothesise there are local clusters of coronavirus which would therefore be amenable to targeted public health measures. MethodsThis is a retrospective, observational case series conducted in a West London District General Hospital. All patients admitted to hospital with a radiological or microbiological diagnosis of Covid-19 were included (children under 16 years were excluded). Consecutive sampling was used and baseline characteristics including age, sex, postcode and final patient outcome were collected from the electronic health records. Patient origin postcode was plotted to a map of the local area and an online cloud based mapping analysis system was used to generate heat maps and case density maps which were compared to living base layers. The primary outcome was identification of local clusters of cases of coronavirus. Secondary outcome was identification of population characteristics that may provide evidence for more targetted public health intervention in a second wave. ResultsLocal clusters of infection were identified within the target population. These appeared to correlate with higher indices of deprivation, poorer overall health and high household occupancy suggesting a role for public health measures to target these areas. ConclusionThere is a role for targeted public health measures in tackling the spread of coronavirus, paying particular attention to those who live in more deprived areas.