A study illustrated that ongoing use of DOAC is not linked with a decline in risk of severe COVID‐19 thus suggesting that prognosis would not be altered by early outpatient DOAC initiation.

A large nationwide register‐based cohort study was carried out to determine whether ongoing usage of DOAC is linked with a minimized risk of severe COVID-19 in 4,59,402 participants. The two co-primary outcomes were: (1) Hospital admission for laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 and, (2) The composite of intensive care unit (ICU) admission or mortality due to laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 

The investigators witnessed no link for DOAC usage (n=1,03,703) with a diminished risk for hospitalization due to COVID-19 in comparison with nonuse in a comparator cohort of subjects suffering from atrial fibrillation (n=36,875) and in a comparator cohort of subjects suffering from major cardiovascular disease (n=3,55,699). 

Furthermore, no relation was noted for DOAC use with ICU admission or mortality due to COVID-19, as shown in the following table:

Thus, COVID-19 prognosis may not be modified by early outpatient DOAC initiation as DOAC therapy does not appear to protect against severe COVID-19.