Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Jul;81(1):1-9.
doi: 10.1016/j.jinf.2020.04.011. Epub 2020 Apr 18.

Current epidemiological and clinical features of COVID-19; a global perspective from China

Huilan Tu  1 , Sheng Tu  1 , Shiqi Gao  2 , Anwen Shao  3 , Jifang Sheng  4
Affiliations
Review

Current epidemiological and clinical features of COVID-19; a global perspective from China

Huilan Tu et al. J Infect. 2020 Jul.

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and represents a potentially fatal disease of great global public health importance. As of March 26, 2020, the outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in 462,801 confirmed cases and 20,839 deaths globally, which is more than those caused by SARS and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2003 and 2013, respectively. The epidemic has posed considerable challenges worldwide. Under a strict mechanism of massive prevention and control, China has seen a rapid decrease in new cases of coronavirus; however, the global situation remains serious. Additionally, the origin of COVID-19 has not been determined and no specific antiviral treatment or vaccine is currently available. Based on the published data, this review systematically discusses the etiology, epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and current intervention measures related to COVID-19 in the hope that it may provide a reference for future studies and aid in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic.

Keywords: 2019-nCoV; COVID-19; Epidemiology; Intervention; SARS-CoV-2.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors state that there was no conflict of interest in the preparation of this review.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig. 1
New daily cases of laboratory-confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as of March 26, 2020. (A) Daily numbers of new cases globally and (B) daily numbers of new cases from China (including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region [SAR] and Macau SAR) and outside of China.
Fig 2
Fig. 2
Daily cumulative laboratory-confirmed cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as of March 26, 2020. Daily numbers of global cases and daily numbers of cases from China (including Hong Kong Special Administrative Region [SAR] and Macau SAR)] and outside of China.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Li X. Potential of large "first generation" human-to-human transmission of 2019-nCoV. J Med Virol. 2020;92(4):448–454. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Li Q. Early Transmission Dynamics in Wuhan, China, of Novel Coronavirus-Infected Pneumonia. N Engl J Med. 2020 doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2001316. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wang C. A novel coronavirus outbreak of global health concern. Lancet (London, England) 2020;395(10223):470–473. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lai C.-C. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19): The epidemic and the challenges. Int J Antimicrob Agents. 2020 105924-105924. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gorbalenya, A.E., et al., Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus: The species and its viruses – a statement of the Coronavirus Study Group. 2020: p. 2020.02.07.937862