Clinical features and outcomes of 221 patients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China

Guqin Zhang; Chang Hu; Linjie Luo; Fang Fang; Yongfeng Chen; Jianguo Li; Zhiyong Peng; Huaqin Pan

Although epidemiological studies indicate a common link between the initially diagnosed patients and the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, 5 an increasing number of later confirmed cases have involved infected patients without history of contacting the implicated market, nor traveling to Wuhan, 6 and the family cluster type of infections were reported. 7 8 Human-to-human transmission has been confirmed, 6 and respiratory droplet and contact are the main transmission routes, while recent reports also suggested the existence of the fecal-oral transmission route. 6 9 Based on a recent large-scale epidemiological survey, the latency period of the SARS-CoV-2 may extend up to 24 days, even though the proportion of patients with long incubation period is very small, but the medium incubation period remains short at 3 days. 6 Reported illnesses have ranged from patients with little or no symptoms to patients being severely ill and dying. 6 The main clinical manifestations include fever, cough, fatigue, and dyspnea. 5 10 11 Compared to young and middle-aged patients with COVID-19, elder infected patients with chronic comorbidities have an increased risk of developing organ dysfunctions, including shock, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), acute cardiac All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.