Epidemiology, Clinical Characteristics of the First Cases of COVID-19.

Liu, Jialin; Liu, Siru; Wei, Hailong; Yang, Xi

BACKGROUND COVID-19 is currently the most urgent threat to public health in the world. The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the first cases of COVID-19 to make further improvements in health policies and prevention measurements in response to the outbreak of COVID-19. METHODS We performed a search in PubMed, the CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), Web of Science, and the WHO database of publications on COVID-19 for peer-reviewed papers from December 1, 2019 to July 9, 2020. We analyzed the demographics, epidemiological characteristics, clinical features, signs, and symptoms of the disease at the onset. RESULTS We identified the first cases of COVID-19 in 16 different countries/regions from Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. Of these 16 cases, 8 (50.0%) were male, with a mean of age 43.38±15.19 years. All the cases had a history of travel or exposure. 12 cases (75.0%) occurred in January, eight patients were Chinese, two patients were international students in Wuhan, one patient had a history of traveling in Wuhan, and one patient was in contact with Chinese patient. The longest hospital stay was 24 days (1 patient), and the shortest was 5 days (1 patient). The usual hospital stay was 9 days (4 patients). CONCLUSION Understanding the epidemiological characteristics, clinical characteristics, and diagnosis and treatment of the first patients in various countries are of great significance for the identification, prevention, and control of COVID-19.