OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to estimate the burden of COVID-19 infections and understand its demographic and clinical characteristics in Colombia.

METHODS: This is a retrospective database study in patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who received medical care in inpatient and outpatient at the Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) -Sura- in Colombia between March 2020, and January 2023. Disease severity was defined based on the outpatient and inpatient services utilization and the risk factors for severe COVID-19 were based on based on CDC’s definition.

RESULTS: A total of 1,030,037 positive cases of COVID-19 were observed in the study period. The cases were mainly females (55.4%) and predominantly lived in urban areas (99%). The median age was 38 years (range: 0-112 years). Most of the cases were mild (79.2%) -outpatient management without oxygen therapy- and about 19.2% and 0.9% required hospitalization and ICU care respectively. About 94% of mild (n= 771,913) and moderate cases (n= 6,873) were not vaccinated against COVID-19 and over 96% of severe (n= 190,093) and critical cases (n= 8,593) didn’t have any vaccines. The most common comorbidities were related to immunocompromised state (22.8%), hypertension (17.7%), mental health conditions (15.3%), cancer (10.6%) and obesity (10.4%). As for cases with any risk factors for severe COVID- 19 (such as age -65 years of age or older- and some comorbidity like diabetes, cancer, immunocompromised state among others), 6% were mild, 18% moderate, 19% severe and 37% critical.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that women, middle aged and older adults, and urban residents were more likely to be infected with COVID. Unvaccinated, elderly and people with immunosuppression were at increased risk of severe COVID-19 infection.