epidemiology of covid-19 in kish island from february to august 2020

Background: in march 2020, the world health organization declared the outbreak of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) as a pandemic. covid-19 is a highly contagious disease. kish is a touristic island that is located in the south of iran. the aim of the present study was to investigate the epidemiology of covid-19 on kish island.methods: in the present cross-sectional study, the residents of kish island, iran, who were checked with covid-19 polymerase chain reaction (pcr) test from february to august 2020 were included. the pcr test was obtained from symptomatic individuals or those people who had exposure to suspected covid-19 cases. data were collected from their medical records and analyzed based on their pcr test results.results: a total of 4859 individuals were checked with covid-19 pcr test. the result was positive in 1251 (25.75%) cases and negative in 3608 (74.25%). the mean age was 37.32 years. the majority of the individuals were men. most of the participants were office employees. the number of housewives was approximately double in covid-19 positive patients compared with the patients with negative results. about 40% of the individuals with positive results had a history of exposure to suspected covid-19 cases. the prevalence of exposure to suspected covid-19 cases and recent travel was significantly higher among positive cases (p < 0.001). there was a significant correlation between the delay between the onset of the symptoms and performing pcr. longer delays were seen among the deceased patients.conclusion: it seems that more precise policies should be taken to avoid contact with symptomatic patients and people who had a history of travel to the island.