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COVID-19 INFECTION, MAY, INFECTIOUS DISEASE, CORONAVIRUS, SEVERE ACUTE RESPIRATORY SYNDROME
Intervention and data collection were performed in the national center for COVID-19 confinement. From May to August 2020, this center included all Tunisian patients having COVID-19.At the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic in Tunisia and to limit the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) within the population, the health authorities implemented various interventions such as the creation of a national containment center in Monastir on April 4, 2020. This center was a hotel and allocated 150 beds for patients. Each patient detected COVID-19 positive anywhere in Tunisia, he was transferred by a non-medical ambulance and admitted at this center. The national center was managed by a professor of infectious disease, the preventive medicine department, the bacteriology laboratory, and the psychiatry department. Medical residents and nurses have been assigned to ensure the daily follow-up of the patients. A whole block of this hotel was dedicated to the accommodation of medical and paramedical staff. Each patient was confined to his room and it is forbidden to go out. The meals were given for each in his room. The study protocol is described in Fig. Study protocol flow diagram. Patients with a positive RT-PCR test at 14 days in the containment center were eligible to be included in the present study. The RT-PCR control test was weekly if it remained positive. The maximum period of staying in the center was 3 months. The phone follow-up was done at 1 year and asking about persistent COVID-19 symptoms and a possible second COVID-19 infection after the first episode. RT-PCR, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction