Clinical Outcomes in 55 Patients With Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Who Were Asymptomatic at Hospital Admission in Shenzhen, China

Abstract

An epidemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has spread unexpectedly in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, since December 2019. There are few reports about asymptomatic contacts of infected patients identified as positive for SARS-CoV-2 through screening. We studied the epidemiological and clinical outcomes in 55 asymptomatic carriers who were laboratory confirmed to be positive for SARS-CoV-2 through nucleic acid testing of pharyngeal swab samples. The asymptomatic carriers seldom occurred among young people (aged 18-29 years) who had close contact with infected family members. In the majority of patients, the outcome was mild or ordinary 2019 novel coronavirus disease during hospitalization.

Keywords: SARS coronavirus 2; asymptomatic infection; outcome.

Figure 1.

Representative thoracic computed tomographic scans of a patient with severe illness, showing normal findings on admission day 1 (A), diffuse patchy shadowing (arrow) on day 5 (B), more diffuse patchy shadowing (arrows) on day 8 (C), and recovery stage on day 15 (D). R indicated the right lung.