Updates are available Correction dated 2021-11-15

Article History

Received: 1 March 2021

Accepted: 12 August 2021

First Online: 3 September 2021

Change Date: 15 November 2021

Change Type: Correction

Change Details: A Correction to this paper has been published:

Change Details: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-12144-2

Declarations

:

: Data collection and analysis were part of outbreak investigations during a public health emergency. Processing of COVID-19 data is necessary for reasons of public interest in the area of public health, such as protecting against serious cross-border threats to health or ensuring high standards of quality and safety of health care, and therefore exempted from institutional review board approval (Regulation EU 2016/679 GDPR).This study is a retrospective cohort analysis. The research question, design and data collection were motivated by the public health emergency response to the COVID-19 epidemic early in March 2020. Regione Lombardia collected data during the emergency using the existing information system for infectious diseases, regulated by a 2004 regional decree, that was then updated in May 2020 to regulate the COVID-19 data flows. Data are pseudo-anonymized. Consent for this data collection at patient level is given in hospitals and laboratories, which send the data to Regione Lombardia. Although patients were not directly involved in the study design, the experiences of clinicians and public health officials interacting with patients were crucial to the design of the data collection. Permission to use data has been obtained by the Covid-19 Research Committee of Regione Lombardia on the 12th of May 2020.

: Not applicable as data are pseudo anonymized.

: None to declare.