Clinical course and management of 73 hospitalized moderate patients with COVID-19 outside Wuhan

Moderate cases account for the majority in hospitalized patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and can also progress to severe/critical condition. Here, we investigated the clinical course and management of hospitalized moderate SARS-CoV-2 patients. The medical records and follow-up data were analyzed from the SARS-CoV-2 patients outside Wuhan. A total of 73 moderate patients (38 men, 35 women) were included, with median age of 47.0 (38.5–57.5) years. Among them, only one patient (1.4%) died using active treatment to improve symptoms. The median duration of the four main symptoms cough, fever, chest tightness, and fatigue were 11.0, 8.0, 11.0, and 7.0 days, respectively; the median duration of the positive nucleic acid test (NAT) results for SARS-CoV-2 was 16.5 days; the median hospitalization time was 25.0 days in 72 moderate survivors. The duration of cough and fever was positively correlated with the duration of the positive NAT results. On admission, 50% had lymphopenia; less than 30% had abnormal blood biochemistry findings involving hyperglycemia, liver function and myocardial enzymes. At discharge, the laboratory indexes were substantially improved. Two weeks after discharge, 5.6% survivors experienced a recurrence of the positive NAT results. Moderate SARS-CoV-2 patients have a good prognosis by the active treatment. A small proportion of the recovered moderate patients still may be virus carriers and require an additional round of viral detection.