A majority of Gram-negative bacteria in COVID-19 patients were found to be highly resistant to the higher generation of antimicrobial agents.

Patients with severe COVID infection need hospitalization, which makes them more prone to bacterial and fungal infections. This study aimed to describe the incidence of secondary infections and clinical outcomes in critically ill COVID-19 Indian patients.

The presence of secondary infections in hospitalized patients was investigated. The demographic data, infection time following hospital admission, microbiological and antimicrobial resistance data associated with secondary infections, and clinical information of COVID-19 patients were assembled and assessed in this retrospective study, 

About 3.6% of patients out of 17,534 hospitalized COVID patients had secondary bacterial or fungal infections. Death among COVID-19 patients due to nosocomial infections was 56.7% compared to the death of 10.6% of patients in total no. of individuals hospitalized.

Gram-negative bacteria were extracted from 78% of patients, with Klebsiella pneumoniae being the main pathogen, which was followed by Acinetobacter baumannii (21%). Polymicrobial infections (plus fungal infections) was reported by 35% of people. A. Baumannii had high levels of carbapenem resistance (92.6%), which was followed by K. Pneumoniae (72.8%).

In hospitalized coronavirus-infected Indian people, there is a low incidence of bacterial and fungal superinfections. But, the presence of such infections can lead to serious disease with terrible outcomes since most superinfections are due to extremely drug-resistant pathogens and are nosocomial. Therefore, to safeguard patient lives and avoid drug-resistant infections, there is a need for improving infection control practices and antimicrobial stewardship.