Background: Since December 2019,more than 80 thousand patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been confirmed in China. With the increasing number of recovered patients, more attention should be paid to the follow-up of patients.
Methods: In the study, 576 patients with COVID-19 discharged from hospital in Chongqing, China from January 24, 2020, to March 10, 2020 were evaluated by viral nucleic acid tests for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2) to determine if they could be released from quarantine. Among the 576 patients, 61 patients (10.6%) had positive results for SARS-CoV-2. We aimed to analyze the demographics, clinical characteristics and treatment of 61 patients.
Results: These positive patients were characterized by older age, chronic medical illness and mild conditions. Asymptom and normalities on chest radiograph were found in most of the positive patients with COVID-19. Also, they showed positive results by stool or sputum specimen with negative results by nasal and throat swab. The median duration of positive result for SARS-CoV-2 was varied from 3 days to 35 days after hospital discharge with no family member infection.
Conclusions: Multi-site screening of SARS-CoV-2 including nasal and throat swab, stool and sputum samples could be considered to improve the diagnosis, treatment and infection control in patients with COVID-19. Our findings provide the important information and clinical evidence for the improved management of patients recovered from COVID-19