ABSTRACT
Background Although novel pneumonia associated with the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) suddenly broke out in China, China has controlled this epidemic effectively. Therefore, evidence-based descriptions of medical and clinical characteristics in China are necessary.Methods Literatures have been systematically performed a search on PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, GreyNet International, and The Cochrane Library from inception up to March 15, 2020. Quality of evidence was evaluated according to the STROBE checklist, and publication bias was analyzed by Egger’s test. In the single-arm meta-analysis, A random-effects model was used to obtain a pooled incidence rate. We conducted subgroup analysis according to geographic region and research scale.Results A total of 30 Chinese studies and 1969 patients were included in this meta-analysis. The valid pooled incidence rates of symptoms were as follows: rhinorrhea 5.1% (95% CI: 3.7–6.8, I2 = 31.90), diarrhea 11.0% (95% CI: 9.3–12.9, I2 = 16.58), pharyngalgia 9.4% (95% CI: 7.5–11.7, I2 = 36.40), headache 9.5% (95% CI: 8.5–11.1, I2 = 5.7), and lymphocytopenia 36.7% (95% CI: 33.8–39.8 I2 = 28.73). Meanwhile, 4.3% (95% CI: 3.5–5.4, I2 = 0.00) of patients were found without any symptoms, although they were diagnosed by RT-PCR. In terms of lung CT imaging, most of the patients showed bilateral mottling or ground-glass opacity, and 7.7% (95% CI: 4.4–12.9, I2 = 35.64) of patients had a crazy-paving pattern. In subgroup analysis, the pooled incidence rate of normal CT presentations in the Wuhan area and outside Wuhan area was 2.3% (95% CI: 1.4–3.6, I2 = 24.78) and 5.8% (95% CI: 4.4–7.7, I2 = 32.76) respectively (P = 0.001).Conclusions The findings suggest that although most of the COVID-19 patients have symptoms or abnormal CT imaging presentations, a few of them accompany with no symptoms or abnormal CT imaging results should also be noticed. The digestive symptoms and lymphocytopenia may be the potential clinical characteristics, especially for patients with a history of contact with COVID-19. Additionally, the incidence rate of ARDS in the Wuhan area and outside Wuhan area was different; however, the reasons for this phenomenon are unclear.