Analysis clinical features of COVID-19 infection in secondary epidemic area and report potential biomarkers in evaluation

Weiping Ji; Gautam Bishnu; Zhenzhai Cai; Xian Shen

A new viral pneumonia disease outbreak in Wuhan city at the beginning of 2020 was confirmed to be caused by the "COVID-19" novel coronavirus infection [1] . COVID-19 has not been previously found in the human body, and no previous case of COVID-19 pneumonia has been detected. The primary clinical symptoms of those infected with coronavirus are chills, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) [2] . According to a report from Wuhan city, the main epidemic area, people infected with COVID-19 often have symptoms of fever, cough, shortness of breath, dyspnea, and severe infection, which can lead to pneumonia or even death [3] . The epidemic has spread from the main epidemic areas, Hubei Province and Wuhan city, to other provinces and cities, where new successive cases of COVID-19 infection have been reported. In some cities, such as Wenzhou city of Zhejiang Province, the epidemic situation is serious. Therefore, these locations outside the main epidemic area have been designated secondary epidemic areas**. In this study, the first cluster of cases of COVID-19 infection in Wenzhou city, Zhejiang Province, which is the leading secondary epidemic area, is reported. **Note: Secondary epidemic areas refer to new areas that are experiencing epidemics caused by the arrival of the infected patients from main epidemic areas and in which the disease is spreading, similar to the main epidemic areas of Hubei Province and Wuhan city. The clinical data of patients who were diagnosed with novel coronavirus COVID-19 positive by nucleic acid test from sputum, throat swab, lower respiratory secretion and other samples were collected from January 15 to February 1, 2020. All patients gave signed, informed consent for their dates to be used for scientific research. Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University (Zhejiang, China).