ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is now a global health concern.However, there is no detailed analysis of the factors related to patients improvement.We compared the clinical characteristics, laboratory findings, CT images, and treatment of COVID-19 patients from two different cities in China. Onehundred and sixty-ninepatients were recruited from January 27 to March 17, 2020 at five hospitals in Hubei and Guangxi. Theywere divided into four groups according to age and into two groups according to presence ofcomorbidities. Multivariate statistical analyses were performed for the prognosis of the disease. Fifty-two patients (30.8%) had comorbidities, and the percentage of critical COVID-19was higher in the comorbidities group (11.6%vs.0.9%, p<0.05). Older patients had higher proportion of severe or critical disease.The resultsshowed that lymphocyte count was significantly associated with thenumber ofdays from positive COVID-19 nucleic acid testto negative test; number of days from onset of symptoms to confirmation of diagnosis was significantly associated with the time it took forsymptoms to improve; andnumber of days from onset of symptomsto confirmation of diagnosis and disease severity were significantly associated withchest computed tomography improvement. We concluded that age, comorbidities, lymphocyte count, and SpO2may predictthe risk of severity of COVID-19.Early isolation, early diagnosis, and early initiation of management canslow down the progression and spread ofCOVID-19.