Fig. 1.

Study flowchart.

Abbreviations: n, number; CT, Clinical Trial

1480 COVID-19 patients were admitted of whom 544 were included in the study, after exclusion of patients hospitalized for <48 h (n = 109), admitted for other medical reasons and incidentally found positive for COVID-19 pneumonia (n = 20), pregnancy (n = 2), for being included in a clinical trial with sarilumab (n = 2), for no need of oxygen therapy >36 h (n = 584), and not meeting criteria for tocilizumab administration (n = 219).