Why carry out this study?

COVID-19 is persisting throughout the world with the spread of new variants. Patients will continue to be infected with COVID-19, and a portion of those infected will also have positive blood cultures either as true bloodstream infections or as contaminants.

This manuscript seeks to provide evidence to differentiate patients with true bloodstream coinfection versus COVID-19 alone and describe their outcomes. It also details antibiotic use between those with true bloodstream infections and contaminant positive blood cultures.

What was learned from the study?

True bacterial bloodstream coinfection in COVID-19 was associated with neurological symptoms and higher white blood cell (WBC) count, and led to overall worse patient outcomes.

These data can help confirm previous data regarding bacterial bloodstream coinfection in COVID-19 and provide helpful diagnostic factors such as white blood cell count or presence of neurological symptoms to aid in differentiating true bloodstream coinfection vs. COVID-19 alone.