Patients and Study design:
A total of 164 patients participated in this study from March 5 to April 5, 2020. We divided the patients into two groups: 111 PCR positive (67.6%) and 53 PCR negative patients (32.4%). CT scans were performed before or at the time of admission for all symptomatic patients and all CT scan results were compatible with COVID -19. The patients were evaluated for symptoms, initial vital signs, comorbidity, clinical and laboratory findings (CBC, biochemistry parameters, inflammation indices) and date of symptoms’ onset before admission. Real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed on oropharyngeal specimens. In this study, all samples were tested within 48 hours after hospitalization and sampling was done using a standard protocol by trained individuals.