Epidemiological and Clinical Characteristics of 944 Cases of 2019 Novel Coronavirus Infection of Non-COVID-19 Exporting City, Zhejiang, China

Abstract

Background: Since December 8, 2019, China is experiencing an outbreak of pneumonia caused by 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The purpose of this study is to get a better understanding of the epidemiology and clinical characteristics of the disease in non-COVID-19-exporting city, Zhejiang.

Methods: In this study, we collected the information of all confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Zhejiang province from Jan 1 to Feb 10, 2020. We analyzed the epidemiological characteristics and clinical characteristics by statistical methods, and the correlation between the clinical factors and COVID-19 infection was compared and analyzed.

Findings: Of the 944 COVID-19 infected patients, 834 (89.2%) had contact with people from Hubei province or confirmed patients. The mean age of the patients was 49.5 years (SD15.8), including 480 males and 483 females. A total of 918 patients (97.2%) presented with different clinical manifestations and 26 (3.2%) had no clinical manifestations. They had clinical manifestations of fever (584 [61.9%]patients), cough (311 [32.9%]patients), weak (93[9.9%]patients), runny (21[2.7%]patients), sore throat (64[6.8%]patients), diarrhea (21[2.7%]patients), headache or dizziness (79[10.1%]patients), muscle ache (45 [5.8%]patients), chest tightness (19 [2.4%]patients).The average temperature of the patients with fever was 37.9 (SD0.5).In addition, 167 cases (74.6%) showed pulmonary CT changes, and 11 cases (4.9%) showed no pulmonary CT changes. From Jan 21 to Jan 29, 2020, the number of cases increased dramatically, and it is now in a downward trend.

Interpretation: The age of the susceptible population in Zhejiang province is consistent with that of whole China. The CT positive rate in Zhejiang province is higher than that in Wuhan. Compared with Wuhan, Zhejiang province has seen more asymptomatic infections, and fever and cough are more common in Zhejiang province. During the period of disease prevention and control, great attention should be paid to the cities with non-exporting cases.

Funding Statement: The authors stated: "None."

Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Keywords: COVID-19; COVID-19 pneumonia; epidemiology; clinical characteristics