Time Kinetics of Viral Clearance and Resolution of Symptoms in Novel Coronavirus Infection

Chang D, Mo G, Yuan X, Tao Y, Peng X, Wang F, Xie L, Sharma L, Dela Cruz CS, Qin E. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2020 Mar 23. [Epub ahead of print] [CrossRef] [PubMed]

The authors briefly describe the time kinetics of symptom onset, duration of symptoms and viral clearance is in 16 patients with COVID-19. The median age was 35.5 years (range 3-68 years), with 11/16 males. The major symptoms in these patients were fever (14/16), cough (11/16), pharyngalgia (5/16) and dyspnea (2/16). The mean  incubation period was 5 days (IQR 1-6 days). The mean duration of symptoms was estimated to be 8 days (IQR 6.25-11.5). Most importantly, half (8/16) of the patient remained viral positive (a surrogate marker of shedding) even after the resolution of symptoms (Median 2.5 days, range 1 to 8 days).