Population-based assessment of SARS-CoV-2 infection among people living with HIV and the general population of Catalonia (March-December, 2020).

Introduction: It is unclear if SARS-CoV-2 has affected people living with HIV (PLWH) more.

Methods: We compared SARS-CoV-2 testing, test positivity, hospitalisation, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and mortality between PLWH and the general HIV-negative population of Catalonia, Spain from March 1 to December 15, 2020.

Results: SARS-CoV-2 testing was lower among PLWH 3556/13,142 (27.06%) compared to the general HIV-negative population 1,954,902/6,446,672 (30.32%) ( < 0.001) but test positivity was higher among PLWH (21.06% vs. 15.82%,  < 0.001). We observed no significant differences between PLWH and the general population in terms of hospitalisation (13.75% vs. 14.97%,  = 0.174) and ICU admission (0.93% vs. 1.66%,  = 0.059). Among positive cases, we found a lower mortality rate among PLWH compared to the general population (1.74% vs 3.64%,  = 0.002).

Conclusion: PLWH tested less frequently for SARS-CoV-2, had a higher test positivity, similar ICU admission and hospitalisation rates, and lower SARS-CoV-2-associated mortality compared to the general HIV-negative population.