Background During the spike of COVID-19 pandemic in Kazakhstan (June-2020), multiple SARS-CoV-2 PCR-test negative pneumonia cases with higher mortality were reported by media. We aimed to study the epidemiologic characteristics of hospitalized PCR-test positive and negative patients with analysis of in-hospital and post-hospital mortality. We also compare the respiratory disease characteristics between 2019 and 2020. Methods The study population consist of 17,691 (March–July-2020) and 4600 (March–July-2019) hospitalized patients with respiratory diseases (including COVID-19). The incidence rate, case-fatality rate and survival analysis for overall mortality (in-hospital and post-hospital) were assessed. Results The incidence and mortality rates for respiratory diseases were 4-fold and 11-fold higher in 2020 compared to 2019 (877.5 vs 228.2 and 11.2 vs 1.2 per 100,000 respectively). The PCR-positive cases (compared to PCR-negative) had 2-fold higher risk of overall mortality. We observed 24% higher risk of death in males compared to females and in older patients compared to younger ones. Patients residing in rural areas had 66% higher risk of death compared to city residents and being treated in a provisional hospital was associated with 1.9-fold increased mortality compared to those who were treated in infectious disease hospitals. Conclusion This is the first study from the Central Asia and Eurasia regions, evaluating the mortality of SARS-CoV-2 PCR-positive and PCR-negative respiratory system diseases during the peak of COVID-19 pandemic. We describe a higher mortality rate for PCR-test positive cases compared to PCR-test negative cases, for males compared to females, for elder patients compared to younger ones and for patients living in rural areas compared to city residents. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12879-021-06154-z.
【저자키워드】 SARS-CoV-2, PCR test, in-hospital mortality, Kazakhstan, COVID-19-like pneumonia, Post-hospital mortality, Provisional hospitals, Infectious disease hospitals, 【초록키워드】 COVID-19, Hospitalized, Mortality, COVID-19 pandemic, hospital, media, Infectious disease, hospitals, Asia, older patient, survival, Characteristics, Respiratory disease, male, female, Patient, death, incidence rate, mortality rate, incidence, Analysis, In-hospital, supplementary material, higher risk, overall mortality, study population, PCR-positive, increased mortality, positive, PCR-negative, regions, females, Result, reported, treated, hospitalized patient, elder patient, Eurasia, pneumonia case, respiratory system disease, were assessed, 【제목키워드】 COVID-19, Mortality, Pneumonia, hospital, Analysis, In-hospital, PCR-positive, PCR-negative,