Introduction
deaths
COVID-19 INFECTION, COMPLICATIONS
In the three years since the first cases of COVID-19 were identified in China, more than 676 million people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 worldwide, and more than 6.8 million have died from its complications. Notably, some countries held higher burdens of cases and deaths, including the United States, India, and Brazil.A severe shortage of medical resources was reported during the peak phase of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations in several regions. The scarcity of crucial resources such as Intensive Care Units (ICU) beds, mechanical ventilation devices, and protective gear for healthcare workers, as well as limited supplies of sedative medications, frequently resulted in inadequate protection for healthcare staff, reduced patient admissions, and restricted access to medical care. Although these issues challenged even some of the world's most affluent countries,Strategies to identify patients for whom scarce treatment and support interventions should be prioritized are crucial in this context.In this study, the authors used data from a large Brazilian tertiary university hospital to explore predictors of ICU admission and hospital mortality in patients admitted for COVID-19 and to develop and validate prediction models that might be used as clinical decision tools for resource allocation in day-to-day emergency care.