Epidemiological and clinical findings of discharge patients infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in Changchun, Northeast China: a retrospective cohort study

Liquan Deng^1,#, Zhijun Li^1,#, Yawen Liu¹, Xinwei Li¹, Ningning Jia¹, Wenyu Cui², Jian Zhang², Yingxin Huang², Yunhong Zhao², Fei Teng², Donglin Wu³, Bonan Cao³, Hui Wang³, Lina Feng^2,*, Qiong Yu^1,*

¹Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of public health, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China - ²Changchun Infectious Diseases Hospital, Changchun 130000, China - ³Center for Disease Prevention and Control of Jilin Province, Changchun 130000, China

Introduction: Few previous studies have been well described the details of the clinical and virological course of illness among discharged patients. The study aims to study the epidemiological and clinical features of discharged patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection in Changchun, Northeast China. 

Materials and methods: We included all discharged patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection from Changchun Infectious Hospital, China, as 9 March 2020. We extracted and collected on data of demographic characteristic, clinical features, chest computed tomography (CT) scan, laboratory result, and treatment from the electronic medical records. Exact epidemiological information was obtained from the investigation of patients or close contacts by investigators of at all levels of the Center for Disease Prevention and Control in Jilin Province. 

Results: Of the 43 discharged patient retrospective studied, 38 were mild novel coronavirus pneumonia, only one with critical ill case and no health workers were infected. The median age was 41.0 years, and 25 were male. All cases were infected by person-to-person transmission and the median incubation period from exposure to illness onset was 8.0 days. 22 patients had comorbidities. The most common symptoms at illness onset were fever, cough, expectoration, myalgia or fatigue, chest tightness, nasal congestion or sneezing. Median duration of illness onset to hospital admission and discharged was 6.0 days and 22.0 days, the median duration of viral shedding after illness onset was 19.0 days (IQR: 14-22). 

Conclusion: Patients were imported and cluster cases by person-to-person transmission and relatively mild in Changchun, China. Our findings further confirmed the prolonged viral shedding among patients.