ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: COVID-19 is currently the most urgent threat to public health in the world. The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the first cases of COVID-19 to make further improvements in health policies and prevention measurements in response to the outbreak of COVID-19. METHODS: We performed a search in PubMed, the CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), Web of Science and the WHO database of publications on COVID-19 for peer-reviewed papers from 1 December 2019 to 9 July 2020. We analysed the demographics, epidemiological characteristics, clinical features, signs and symptoms of the disease at the onset. RESULTS: We identified the first cases of COVID-19 in 16 different countries/regions from Asia, Europe, North America and South America. Of these 16 cases, 8 (50.0%) were male, with a mean of age 43.38 ± 15.19 years. All the cases had a history of travel or exposure. Twelve cases (75.0%) occurred in January, eight patients were Chinese, two patients were international students in Wuhan, one patient had a history of travelling in Wuhan, and one patient was in contact with Chinese patient. The longest hospital stay was 24 days (1 patient), and the shortest was 5 days (1 patient). The usual hospital stay was 9 days (4 patients). CONCLUSION: Understanding the epidemiological characteristics, clinical characteristics, and diagnosis and treatment of the first patients in various countries are of great significance for the identification, prevention and control of COVID-19.