Objective To discern the symptomatic features of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) and to evaluate the severity and prognosis of the disease. Methods In this retrospective cohort study, 932 hospitalized patients with COVID‐19 in Wuhan were enrolled, including 52 severe and 880 non‐severe cases. All patients were followed up for 3 months after discharge. The symptomatic features and follow‐up data of the patients in both groups were analyzed and compared. Results Of the 932 patients, fever (60.0%), cough (50.8%) and fatigue (36.4%) were the most common symptoms. In total, 32.7% of the severe cases presented with gastrointestinal symptoms at disease onset, including anorexia, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea, which was significantly higher than that of the non‐severe group (P = 0.0015). The incidence of olfactory disturbance and dysgeusia was only 3.1% and 6.2%, respectively. After adjusting for age and sex, multivariate regression analysis showed that fever lasting for over 5 days (odds ratio [OR] 1.90, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.00‐3.62, P = 0.0498), anorexia at onset (OR 2.61, 95% CI 1.26‐5.40, P = 0.0096), and modified Medical Research Council level above grade 2 when dyspnea occurred (OR 14.19, 95% CI 7.01‐28.71, P < 0.0001) were symptomatic risk factors for severe COVID‐19. During the follow‐up, cough (6.2%), dyspnea (7.2%), fatigue (1.8%), olfactory disturbance and dysgeusia (1.5%) were the significant remaining symptoms. Conclusions COVID‐19 causes clusters of symptoms with multiple systems involved. Certain symptomatic characteristics have predictive value for severe COVID‐19. Short‐term follow‐up data reveal that most patients have a good prognosis.

Our findings broaden the knowledge on the reversibility of different stages of cirrhosis as HNF4α could present a promising alternative for the treatment of liver cirrhosis.

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