Li Y, Shang Y, Yang Y, et al. - Researchers here analyzed the initial clinical characteristics of COVID-19 suspected and confirmed patients on admission with the aim to determine the kinds that are at higher risk of getting positive nucleic acid testing results, and to ascertain the risk factors linked with all-cause death. They obtained medical records from 309 highly suspected cases with pneumonia who presented to a COVID-19-designated hospital of Wuhan. Of these cases, 111 patients (35.9%) were confirmed by nucleic acid testing (median age 64 years, IQR: 56–71 years; 48 males). Multivariate analysis suggested the following factors to be linked with positive testing: fatigue, cough, no less than 1 comorbidity, and severe pneumonia. Overall findings suggest that positive results were more frequent among patients with severe forms of this disease. A greater risk of death was observed in correlation with age and organ dysfunction.