Clinical characteristics of COVID-19 in Fujian Province: a multicenter retrospective study

Abstract Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread worldwide, leading to thousands of deaths. We aim to describe the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Fujian province, China. Methods In this retrospective, multi-center study, we collected and analysed 165 patients of COVID-19 confirmed by real time PCR of nasopharyngeal swab specimens in five tertiary hospitals of Fujian province, China from Jan 22 to Feb 16, 2020. The final date of follow-up was February 21, 2020. Results Of the 165 hospitalized patients with COVID-19, 101 patients had relation with Wuhan within two weeks. Symptoms at illness onset mainly were fever (76.4%), cough (60%) and expectoration (38.2%). On admission, the severity of most patients were classified as mild or common and lymphopenia (33.9%), hypoxemia (15.2%), elevated and bilateral pneumonia (83.6%) was observed. Patients older than 65 years had significantly high frequency of hypertension, diabetes, severe classification, lymphopenia and hypoxemia than those younger than 65 years. Age correlated negatively with lymphocyte count and oxygenation index on admission while positively with duration from exposure to the time of negative RT-PCR. At the end of follow-up, 80 patients were discharged and one died. The median hospital stay was 17 days. Conclusions Patients with COVID-19 were mostly non-severe cases in Fujian province and older patients (>65 years) were more likely to have lymphopenia and hypoxemia, and to progress as severe cases of COVID-19 than those younger than 65.