Bacterial and fungal growth in sputum cultures from 165 COVID-19 pneumonia patients requiring intubation: evidence for antimicrobial resistance development and analysis of risk factors.

Background: Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 causes COVID-19 illness which can progress to severe pneumonia. Empiric antibacterials are often employed though frequency of bacterial coinfection superinfection is debated and concerns raised about selection of bacterial antimicrobial resistance. We evaluated sputum bacterial and fungal growth from 165 intubated COVID-19 pneumonia patients.