Figure 3.

a) Results of SARS-CoV-2 test at autopsy (N=889). When autopsies took place within three weeks from the first COVID-19 symptoms/SARS-CoV-2 test, the test for SARS-CoV-2 at autopsy was positive in more than half of the cases. When the disease duration and post-mortem interval were longer than three weeks, the percentage of positive SARS-CoV-2 tests at autopsy decreased to less than 50%. b) Cause of death at autopsy (COVID-19 autopsies with positive clinical or post-mortem test for SARS-CoV-2, N=986). COVID-19 was the underlying cause of death in 86·2% of COVID-19 autopsies, whereas COVID-19 was a concomitant disease in 13·8% of COVID-19 autopsies. The most common immediate cause of death in COVID-19 deaths was diffuse alveolar damage/acute respiratory distress syndrome (DAD/ARDS), followed by multiorgan failure. c) Comparison of the disease duration of the most common immediate causes of death as shown in b) by pandemic wave (Tukey method for plotting the whiskers and outliers, no significant differences between waves, two way ANOVA with Bonferroni post test).