Introduction: Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are increasingly being recognized in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It is unclear if the presence of GI symptoms is associated with poor outcomes in COVID-19. We aim to assess if GI symptoms could be used for prognostication in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed patients admitted to a tertiary medical center in Brooklyn,

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) is caused by SARS‐CoV‐2 infection, which evolved into a global pandemic within a short time. Individuals with sickle cell disease (SCD) suffer from underlying cardiopulmonary comorbidities and are at risk of severe complications such as pneumonia, acute chest syndrome, thrombosis, stroke, and multiorgan failure. Whether COVID‐19 poses a high risk of morbidity and mortality in SCD patients remains unclear. Patients with SCD and COVID‐19 can present with overlapping clinical features such as respiratory symptoms with ground‐glass infiltrates, hyperinflammatory state, and increased risk of thromboembolism. This highlights the need to maintain a low threshold for testing for COVID‐19 infection among symptomatic and hospitalized SCD patients. We report a case series of nine hospitalized SCD patients diagnosed with COVID‐19 from March 18, 2020 to April 30, 2020 at a tertiary medical center in New York City. The mean age of the study population was 27.9 years, and interval since onset of symptoms and hospital presentation was 1–2 weeks. All patients in our series improved and were discharged home. This limited study shows that SCD patients, who are perceived to be high risk, maybe somehow protected from severe symptoms and complications of COVID‐19 infection.

In this retrospective study we analyze and compare clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with and without cancer history who were infected with novel coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19). Medical records were reviewed and a comparative analysis of 53 cancer and 135 non-cancer patients with COVID-19 were summarized. Results: The median age for COVID-19 patients with and without cancer was 71.5 and 61.6 years, respectively. Patients aged 60 years and above were 86.8% and 60.7% in cancer and non-cancer groups, respectively. A high proportion of cases were seen in African Americans 73.6% (with cancer) and 75.6% (without cancer) followed by Hispanic patients. Male and female patients had a high percentage of prostate (39.3%) and breast (32%) cancer respectively. Prostate cancer (18.9%) and myeloma (11.3%) were common among solid and hematological cancers respectively. Hypertension and smoking were prevalent among cancer (83% and 41.5%) compared to non-cancer (67.4% and 9.6%) patients. The common symptoms in cancer patients were dyspnea (64.2%) followed by fever and cough (50.9%) compared to fever (68.1%) and cough (66.7%) in non-cancer patients. Cancer patients had higher levels of lactic acidosis, C-reactive protein, lactate dehydrogenase, and alkaline phosphatase than non-cancer patients (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Rapid clinical deterioration was seen in cancer patients who were aged 60 years and above. Higher mortality was seen in this subgroup, especially when they had associated hypertension and elevated levels of CRP and LDH.