High Incidence of Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection, Chongqing, China

Background: SARS-CoV-2 has been a global pandemic, but the emergence of asymptomatic patients has caused difficulties in the prevention of the epidemic. Therefore, it is significant to understand the epidemiological characteristics of asymptomatic patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: In this single-center, retrospective and observational study, we collected data from 167 patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection treated in Chongqing Public Health Medical Center (Chongqing, China) from January to March 2020. The epidemiological characteristics and variable of these patients were collected and analyzed. Findings: 82.04% of the SARS-CoV-2 infected patients had a travel history in Wuhan or a history of contact with returnees from Wuhan, showing typical characteristics of imported cases, and the proportion of severe COVID-19 patients was 13.2%, of which 59% were imported from Wuhan. For the patients who was returnees from Wuhan, 18.1% was asymptomatic patients. In different infection periods, compared with the proportion after 1/31/2020, the proportion of asymptomatic patient among SARS-CoV-2 infected patient was higher(19% VS 1.5%). In different age groups, the proportion of asymptomatic patient was the highest(28.6%) in children group under 14, next in elder group over 70 (27.3%). Compared with mild and common COVID-19 patients, the mean latency of asymptomatic was longer (11.25 days VS 8.86 days), but the hospital length of stay was shorter (14.3 days VS 16.96 days). Conclusion: The SARS-CoV-2 prevention needs to focus on the screening of asymptomatic patients in the community with a history of contact with the imported population, especially for children and the elderly population. Funding Statement: This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program (No.2016YFC1101100) and National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (No. 31625011). Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethics Approval Statement: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Chongqing Public Health Medical Treatment Center (NO.2020-018-01-KY), informed consent was allowed to be waived.