Early antiviral treatment contributes to alleviate the severity and improve the prognosis of patients with novel coronavirus disease (COVID‐19)

Background At present, the severity of patients infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) has been a focal point. Methods To assess the factors associated with severity and prognosis of patients infected with SARS‐CoV‐2, we retrospectively investigated the clinical, imaging and laboratory characteristics of confirmed 280 cases of novel coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) from 20 January to 20 February 2020. Results The median age of patients in the mild group was 37.55 years, whilst that in the severe group was 63.04 years. The proportion of patients aged over 65 years in the severe group was significantly higher than that of the mild group (59.04% vs. 10.15%, P