Outcomes Among Patients Hospitalized for COVID-19 Treated with Remdesivir in an Urban Center Pre-COVID-19 Vaccination

Objective: Data on treatment outcomes among minority populations treated with remdesivir are limited. We sought to evaluate outcomes among patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and treated with remdesivir among a predominantly Black and LatinX population.

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and treated with remdesivir at an urban hospital in Newark, NJ, between May 1, 2020, and April 30, 2021, prior to widespread COVID-19 vaccination uptake. We describe 28-day mortality by demographic, socio-economic, and clinical factors, including clinical status by World Health Organization's (WHO) 8-point Ordinal Scale for Clinical Improvement.

Results: A total of 206 patients met study inclusion criteria (52% were male, 41% non-Hispanic Black and 42% Hispanic). Overall mortality at 28 days was 11%. Eighty-one percent of patients with baseline WHO status of 4 or greater recovered by day 14. Mortality was higher among those who were older (p = 0.01), those with underlying diabetes mellitus (p = 0.047), those with more severe illness on admission by WHO Ordinal Scale (WHO status ≥ 4), and those on concomitant tociluzimab or convalescent plasma use.

Conclusions: We found that remdesivir was effective in treating most COVID-19 patients in our study. Traditional risk factors, such as advanced age and underlying co-morbidities, were associated with worse clinical outcomes and deaths.