Preliminary epidemiological study of the COVID-19 pandemic in Piauí, Brazil

Introduction : The novel Coronavirus is the pathogen of COVID-19 or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV-2), whose more common symptoms are fever, dry cough and dyspnea. This study aimed to analyze the epidemiological profile of all COVID-19 confirmed cases in the state of Piauí. Outline : Descriptive epidemiological study, as of data concerning to the confirmed cases collected in the epidemiological panel of Piauí with the following variables of study: total of cases, gender, age range, comorbidities associated to the deaths of people by COVID-19, occupation rate of the hospital and UCI beds in the state of Piauí. Results : The COVID-19 cases are of mainly occurrence in adults in the age range of 30 to 49, of the gender female. The deaths by the disease presented higher concentration in the elderly with associated comorbidities. More than 60% of the UCI beds are occupied by patients affected by the disease. Implications : The data about the COVID-19 in Piauí are quite of alarming, with an elevated number of contaminated persons. It is necessary to implement strategies for preventing the disease, to keep the measures of social isolation and to ensure qualified care to the affected ones, aiming to keep COVID-19 under control.


INTRODUCTION
The COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by the novel coronavirus, counting on a parcel of either asymptomatic or olygosymptomatic and another parcel which requires hospital cares with possibility of evolution for respiratory insufficiency and death.
The disease was recognized by the World Health Organization on January 12, 2020 and, in a short time, had become a pandemic, striking more than 180 countries.The first case of the disease was recognized in China on December 31, 2019.[3] The COVID-19 manifests as upper and lower respiratory tract infection, showing mild symptoms as cough and sneezing, evolving with fever, shortness of breath and, in its serious form, shows pneumonia.
The incubation period ranges from 1 to 14 days, depending on individual's immune system.The disease causes a series of complications in patients which show associated comorbities. 4e COVID-19 pandemic brought with it a series of concerns and changes in worldwide health care systems, being, therefore, a current and quite of relevant thematic for the society.This study has as goal to analyze the epidemiological profile of all COVID-19 confirmed cases in the state of Piauí.

METHOD
The study is of transversal kind, descriptive and

RESULTS
The Figure 1   The Table 1 shows the profile of the COVID-19 confirmed cases in the state of Piauí with highlight for cases of the disease in the age range of 30 to 39 (24.61%).The age range of 40 t0 49 occupies the second place and the age range with the lowest index of infection is the one of 0 to 9, totalizing 2.95%.The female gender shows 52.4% of the confirmed cases of infection by COVID-19 in the state.

DISCUSSION
It is important to report that these numbers can be higher, considering that the data can have Such fact is worrying not only in the state of Piauí but, also, in Brazil and in the world. 5he metabolic changes in the seniors are related to the low immunity, seeing that the T and B cells do not have a good performance due to ageing, with concomitant larger production of type 2 cytokines.[8] The articulations between the networks of health care in the state have important factor, since speedily there were opened field hospital which stay at constant adaptation, however, the health situation retrospective.The collection of secondary data was performed by means of the compiled of information of the Health State Secretary of Piauí (SESAPI), available in the COVID-19 Panel of Teresina-PI with free and online access.The collected data comprises the cases notified until June 22, 2020.The study population was composed by the COVID-19 affected individuals in the state of Piauí.There were included all the data of confirmed cases, as well as deaths caused by the disease ever since its emergence until the day June 22, 2020.The data collection was performed on June 22, 2020.For obtaining the epidemiological profile of the cases in Piauí, the following variables were analyzed: total of cases, gender, age range, comorbidities associated to the people's deaths by COVID-19, occupation rate of hospital and UCI beds in the state of Piauí.The data analysis was carried out through the software Microsoft Excel™, with statistical analysis by means of absolute values and percentages, with posterior construction of graphs.The study waives submission to the Research Ethics Committee as these are publicly available data, in public domain, by SESAPI, in the COVID-19 Panel of Teresina-PI.Yet, all ethical aspects established by Resolution 466, of December 12, 2012, were duly respected.

The Chart 1 Chart 1 -
shows the distribution of the comorbidities and of risk factors in people which had confirmed death by COVID-19.The most common comorbidity among the deaths was the cardiopathy, including Systemic Arterial Hypertension (45.60%), followed by Diabetes Mellitus (24.24%).A percentage of 8.37% of the deaths was of people without associated comorbidities.Frequency of the comorbidities or risk factors among the confirmed deaths in Piauí.Piauí, Brazil, 2020.(N=393).Source: COVID-19 Teresina Panel, SESAPI, 2020.The rate of occupation of UCI beds of the state of Piauí, evidencing an occupation of 71% of the beds by hospital-interned patients because of COVID-19, what constitutes an alarming datum.In relation to the hospital beds of the state of Piauí, those are with occupation of 50% of the beds by hospital-interned patients because of COVID-19.
limitations of the sorts: underreporting, problems related to health information systems, the scarcity of tests for mass diagnosis at the beginning of the pandemic.The largest number of COVID-19 cases in the state of Piauí is in adults on the age range of 30 to 49, individuals which can be asymptomatic, hampering disease tracking, with consequent virus dissemination.This makes control of COVID-19 incredibly challenging for the health authorities.The deaths due COVID-19 are higher in the elderly ones which have associated comorbidities, what can be explained by the fact that the aging makes the seniors more susceptible to complications.

13 CONCLUSION
is not ideal.With the opening of new clinic and UCI beds, besides of the constant health-staff training, it has been observed great effort by local health authorities in the state.Although the number of UCI beds had been duplicated in the state, there still have situations of waiting for hospital interment vacancy.[9][10]It can be observed that the networks of emergency care and primary care are relatively resolute in activities of tracking the disease.Also, there were acquired a lot of intensive life support equipment, as mechanical ventilators, beyond of the increasing in the number ambulances for transportation of suspect and confirmed cases. 11-13Ahead of COVID-19 pandemic, the respect to the standard of prevention of the disease are essential, it is necessary the Society to understand how disease transmission occurs and, thus, to have more consciousness that the use protection masks, correct hand hygiene, and avoiding crowded locations are primordial measures to break the chain of transmissibility of the virus.It is notorious that the data about the COVID-19 are quite of worrisome, with an elevated index of contaminated persons and a lot of deaths by the disease.The age range of 30 to 49 is the one with the highest number of confirmed cases of the disease.However, the age range that concentrates the highest number of deaths comprises the senior citizens with comorbidities.It is necessary to increase the strategies for preventing the disease, to increment the tracking of new disease cases aiming to start the treatment in an initial stage of the disease, enhancing the control of the evolution of disease cases.More important than treating is avoiding the disease setting in, being the social isolation measures a determining factor in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic.