Conclusion
Finally, we conclude that the decision on COVID-19 patients should not exclusively depend on RT-PCR positivity during the time of the pandemic. Clinical manifestations, laboratory findings and positive CT results play a critical role in clinician’s decision, especially in countries with a high prevalence of COVID-19 with lower medical facilities. The patients would be isolated from other healthy individuals and not discharged from the hospital until they have fully recovered. We suggest that it would be better to investigate a large number of people to obtain more accurate results. This study compared clinical characteristics, initial vital signs and laboratory data of early stage of COVID-19 in PCR positive and negative groups in Iran, which has certain value for future control and research. Follow-up of the patients and outcome evaluation between RT-PCR positive and negative groups could be the subjects for further research.