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PONE-D-20-08032

Epidemiologic and Clinical Characteristics of Corona Virus Disease Involving Patients in Beijng, China

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Cao,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

# academic editor

1. The language should be edited extensively for better quality.

2. It is inappropriate to state "Epidemiologic" in the title because the data were obtained only from one hospital.

3."Corona Virus Disease" in the title of the paper may be confused with other coronavirus disease. It may be better using "coronavirus disease 2019" whose abbreviation is COVID-19 according to the WHO nomenclature.

4. Statistical analysis for continuous variables should be Mann-Whitney U when the data show non-normal distribution rather than t test.

5. There is no outcomes of the dead patients. 

#reviewer 1

In this manuscript, Cao et al described Epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 infected patients in Beijing, China. This is a straightforward descriptive paper. Given the importance of COVID 19 infection in China, the paper add some important information outside Wuhan, which is the epicenter of the epidemics. However, the paper lacks very important information, specifically

1. There was no comparison of the Epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 infected patients in Beijing with those in Wuhan.

2. What kind of antiviral and Chinese medicines were used in treatment of Beijing patients?

3. Since the data were collected at the time of admission, it is not clear whether patients already showed severity of symptoms. How many of non-severe patients showed severe symptoms later on while in the hospital?

4. In Discussion it is mentioned, “Patients with severe illness were more likely to have expectoration and shortness of breath, however in most cases severity was defined by these parameters. Therefore, severity must be better defined.

5. Minor point: spelling must be checked. Beijing in title is misspelled

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Caio et al. PLOS.In this manuscript.docx

Clinical Characteristics of Coronavirus Disease 2019 Patients in Beijing, China

PONE-D-20-08032R1

Dear Dr. Jin,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Ying-Mei Feng

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE