Conclusion
Finally, we conclude that the decision on COVID-19 patients should not
exclusively depend on RT-PCR positivity during the time of the pandemic.
Clinical manifestations, laboratory findings and positive CT results
play a critical role in clinician’s decision, especially in countries
with a high prevalence of COVID-19 with lower medical facilities. The
patients would be isolated from other healthy individuals and not
discharged from the hospital until they have fully recovered. We suggest
that it would be better to investigate a large number of people to
obtain more accurate results. This study compared clinical
characteristics, initial vital signs and laboratory data of early stage
of COVID-19 in PCR positive and negative groups in Iran, which has
certain value for future control and research. Follow-up of the patients
and outcome evaluation between RT-PCR positive and negative groups could
be the subjects for further research.