A research team at Kyungpook National University Hospital (KNUH) has announced the clinical courses of 632 Covid-19 patients treated at two community treatment centers in Daegu.

According to the study, 11.9 percent of the inpatients had symptoms when they entered the community treatment centers, and 29.4 percent developed symptoms while being treated. However, 58.7 percent of them were asymptomatic throughout the entire clinical course.

Besides, 3 percent of the patients were transferred to the hospital due to the worsened condition. Patients who were over 50, had one or more underlying diseases and showed severe symptoms were risk factors related to the transfer.

Patients took an average of 20.1 days from the time of testing positive to being declared fully recovered by showing a negative response to the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for two consecutive times conducted in 24-hours’ interval.

About 20 percent of patients spent more than four weeks in the community treatment center. The symptomatic patients took an average of two more days for complete recovery than asymptomatic ones.

Patients who developed symptoms at the center tended to have a more extended stay there. These patients took an average of 11.7 days from symptoms onset to recovery.

Researchers said their study could help community center operators run their facilities more effectively or revise self-quarantine guidelines, given most of the coronavirus patients have mild or no symptoms amid the unrelenting cluster infections in the Seoul metro region.

The study was published online in the Emerging Infectious Disease (Impact Factor 7.5), a medical journal published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.