Prevalence and clinical features of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Fever Clinic of a teaching hospital in Beijing: a single-center, retrospective study

Ying Liang; Jingjin Liang; Qingtao Zhou; Xiaoguang Li; Fei Lin; Zhonghua Deng; Biying Zhang; Lu Li; Xiaohua Wang; Hong Zhu; Qingbian Ma; Xiaomei Tong; Jie Xu; Yongchang Sun

We found that epidemiological history was extremely important for identification of suspected cases of COVID-19 and for differential diagnosis. Over 90% of the COVID-19 patients had clearly identified epidemiological evidence, while in non-COVID-19 patients, epidemiological links could only be found in 32.8%. In our series, most cases were imported from the city of Wuhan or Hubei Province, including traveling to or living in Wuhan or other cities in Hubei, and a few had a history of close contact with individuals coming from the above areas. In the later phase of our study, contact with family members with confirmed COVID-19 was an epidemiological feature and five family clusters were found. A report from Chinese CDC showed that the incidence of COVID-19 outside Hubei Province peaked in Jan 24-27 and most cases (68.6%) had ever exposed to Wuhan or Hubei within 14 days 11 . Weight of exposure history related to Wuhan and Hubei in confirmed cases was decreasing after February 11 . Consistent to previous reports, the incubation period of our cases was in a range of 2-10 days, with a median of 6.5 days [12] [13] [14] .