Clinical manifestations and progression of COVID‑19 : a case report from the Maldives

Abstract

A cluster of pneumonia was reported from Wuhan, Hubei province, China in December 2019. The causative agent was named as novel coronavirus “SARS-CoV-2” and the disease as COVID‑19. The disease rapidly spread to several countries and WHO declared the outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern and as a pandemic on 11th March 2020. In the Maldives, the first case of COVID‑19 was detected on the 7th of March. At the time of writing, there are 3103 cases of confirmed COVID‑19 including 15 fatalities. The SARS-CoV-2 causes mild to severe pneumonia complicated by ARDS, sepsis, and multi-organ dysfunction syndrome. Other manifestations include anosmia, ageusia, fatigue, and rash. In many requiring hospitalization, hypoxemia is a key clinical finding. The clinical manifestations including the clinical progression of COVID‑19 is being described in this report. The case was conservatively managed in a makes-shift hospital, with the utilization of the awake prone positioning which had resulted in better oxygenation and aided in the improvement of hypoxemia.