Epidemiological And Clinical Characteristics of The First 18 Patients with COVID-19 in Taiwan

To understand the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in Taiwan, we analyzed data from the National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System and epidemiological case investigation reports We included all real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (real-time RT-PCR) confirmed cases of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) from Jan 21 to Feb 14, 2020, and followed up until Feb 27, 2020 Eighteen cases were confirmed and all survived Median follow-up period was 24 5 days (range: 14-35) Of them, 16 (88 9%) were imported cases, and 2 (11 1%) were infected by imported cases within household Their median age was 52 years (range: 21-74);8 (44 4%) were men, and 9 (50%) had comorbidities Symptoms included cough (72 2%), fever (66 7%), rhinorrhea (22 2%) and diarrhea (11 1%);one patient (5 5%) was asymptomatic According to the WHO definition of clinical syndromes associated with SARS-CoV-2, there were 8 (44 4%), 9 (50 0%), and 1 (5 6%) categorized as mild, moderate, and severe illness, respectively At the end of follow-up, 9 cases met the criteria of discontinuation of isolation and 8 of them were discharged The median time from admission to discontinuation of isolation was 21 days (range: 13-31) and the median duration of persistent RT-PCR positivity was 14 days (range: 4- 22) and 15 days (range: 4-24) for upper and lower respiratory samples, respectively The first 18 cases of COVID-19 in Taiwan were all imported or importation related, which were related to the early phase of COVID-19 epidemic Because viral clearance may take more than 2 weeks, management plans for patients with mild illness is necessary to ensure the best use of medical care capacities during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic