Recent cohort studies frequently reported low rate of fever in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients, which was in sharp contrast with previous studies that reported > 98% of patients presented fever on admission. Fever is a protective response for infections and an important criterion in the diagnosis of COVID-19. To understand the prevalence of fever in COVID-19 and its correlation with other symptoms and outcomes, we conducted a chart review of 252 hospitalized patients from 15 participating hospitals in Guangdong, Hubei, and Jiangxi provinces, China, from January 19 to March 6, 2020. Diagnosis of COVID-19 was based on positive severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) reverse transcription-PCR test. Our study was approved by the institutional review boards of the Sun Yat-sen University and the participating hospitals.
Non-febrile COVID-19 patients were common and often became critically ill: a retrospective multicenter cohort study
