Introduction: The reasons for the decrease in blood cultures were investigated and the rate and aetiology of bacteremia and contaminated blood cultures collected from COVID and non-COVID patients were assessed. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis in a tertiary hospital in Spain during the COVID period from 4th March 2020 to 21thJune 2020. Results: The number of blood cultures processed was 5313, representing 22.7 % and 18.8 % of decrease compared to the same months of 2019 and 2018, respectively (p=0.173). The rate of bacteremia was 1.2% higher among COVID-patients than among non-COVID patients (p<0.001). COVID patients had a higher proportion of nosocomial bacteremia (95.5%) than non-COVID patients (30.5%) (p<0.001). In COVID-positive patients, the contamination rate was 12.3% vs 5.7% in non-COVID patients (p<0.001). Conclusion: There was a decrease in the number of blood cultures collected during the COVID period compared to previous years. Bacteremia in COVID patients was mainly nosocomial and catheter-related.

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Introduction. The disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) has been a challenge for healthcare professionals since its appearance. Staphylococcus aureus has been described as one of the main pathogens causing bacterial infections in viral pandemics. However, co- infection with S. aureus causing bacteremia in patients with COVID-19 has yet to be well studied. Methods. We performed a e study of S. aureus bacteremia (SAB) at Hospital Miguel Servet (Zaragoza) from March 2020 to February 2021. The clinical characteristics, mortality and risk factors of adults hospitalized patients with BSA associated COVID-19 compared to patients without COVID-19. Results. A total of 95 patients with SAB were identified. 27.3% were positive for SARS-CoV-2. SAB represented 9.9% of bacteremia, being the second agent in frequency after E. coli. Nosocomial bacteremia was more frequent in the group of COVID-19 patients. The most frequent source of BSA in these patients was the respiratory source (26.9% vs 0%; P<0.001) followed by the skin (15.5% vs 15.9%; P=1). The development of sepsis was more frequent in COVID-19 patients (61,5% vs 7,8%; P=0,336) and among them, who received dexamethasone at doses > 6 mg/day (62.5% vs. 37.5%, P<0.05). Conclusions. Our data suggest that BSA has a negative impact on the evolution of patients with COVID-19. However, further and preferably prospective studies are required to obtain solid data on the impact of BSA on coronavirus patients.

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