Symptoms, symptom relief and support in COVID-19 patients dying in hospitals during the first pandemic wave.

The standard medical strategies for symptom relief and end-of-life care in hospitals seemed to be acceptable. Symptoms in COVID-19 deaths in hospitals were relieved as much as or even to a higher degree than in hospitals in 2019. Importantly, though, as a result of closing the hospitals to relatives and visitors, patients dying from COVID-19 more frequently died alone, and healthcare providers were not able to substitute for absent relatives.