Clinical characteristics of 745 patients with COVID-19
A total of 745 patients who officially recovered from COVID-19 were
enrolled in this study, and they were all tested for SARS-CoV-2 by
RT-PCR after discharge. Up to September 21, 2020, 157 patients (21.1%;
95% CI, 18.2 to
24.0)
retested positive by RT-PCR and were transferred to the designated
hospital. Fig. S1 shows the distribution of COVID-19 patients
by date of the first admission, and the characteristics at the first
admission of the 157 positive retest patients are shown in Table
1 . Positive retest results were observed in patients in all age groups
(age ranging from 3 months to 82.0 years, with a median age of 33.0
years), which was significantly younger than that of negative retest
patients (median age of 38.0 years). The days from the first admission
to discharge of positive retest patients were significantly shorter than
those of negative retest patients (11.2 [5.5, 16.4] vs. 13.0 [8.0,
20.0] days). During their first admission, all patients were updated
by the progression of their illness, and the most severe condition was
their final severity designation. One in three positive retest patients
was asymptomatic compared with one in six negative retest patients
(P <0.001). The positive retest patients had fewer
comorbidities (such as cardiovascular disease, 1 [0.6%] vs. 29
[4.9%]), were less likely to be treated with anti-infective drugs
(58 [36.9%] vs. 308 [52.4%]) and were likely to be in the ICU
(4 [2.6%] vs. 37 [6.3%]). After discharge from the hospital,
RT-PCR testing was performed regularly, and the median number of tests
was 4.0 times (IQR, 3.0 to 6.0 times) for positive retest patients,
which was significantly greater than that of negative retest patients
(P <0.001). The median time for discharged patients
retested as being viral RNA-positive was 8.0 days (IQR, 8.0 to 14.0
days) after discharge (Table 1 and Fig. 2 ). After discharge, 4
(2.6%) patients had symptoms of dry cough, 10 (6.4%) patients had
expectoration, 2 (1.3%) patients had sore throat and 2 (1.3%) had
fatigue, which was lower than that of the first admission. Among the 127
patients who underwent CT examination, 104 (81.3%) patients had
abnormal but
obvious
absorption. Lymphocyte cell counts and lymphocyte cell percentages were
increased compared with those before (Table 2 ).