Clinical Characteristics of 107 Patients with COVID-19 in Ningbo, China: Single Center Experience Outside Hubei

Abstract

Background Since December 2019, there has be an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Wuhan, China. Nowadays, it rapidly spread across the country and then the worldwide. We aimed to investigate the clinical characteristics of patients with COVID-19.Methods The patients with confirmed COVID-19 admitted between January 25 and February 10, 2020, were enrolled. Epidemiological, demographic, clinical, laboratory, radiological data, and antivirus therapies, were retrospectively collected and analyzed. The 90-day follow-up of these patients was also performed.Results A total of 107 patients were included. The median age was 55.0 years (range from 18.0 to 85.0 years), and 72 (67.3%) were female. Ninety-three (86.9%) of the patients had a history of contacting with residents from Wuhan (n=31), or contacting with confirmed COVID-19 patients (n=62) within 2 weeks. Fifty-eight (54.2%) had a family cluster onset. Fever and cough were the most common symptoms. Only two patients had diarrhea. The most common underlying disease was hypertension. Lymphopenia was observed in 26 patients. Fifty-two patients with an elevated level of IL-6. On admission, bilateral patchy shadowing and ground-glass opacity were the typical radiological findings on chest computed tomography. Six patients had an intensive care unit (ICU) stay. Antivirus therapy was performed to all patients. 105 patients discharged with an improved condition, and no death was occurred during our 90-day follow-up for these patients.Conclusions Patients with COVID-19 in our hospital had relatively mild symptoms, and good prognosis. This study also highlights the importance of human-to-human transmission in COVID-19.