Association between clinical symptoms and time to pharyngeal PCR negativity among mild omicron COVID-19 patients: a retrospective study

BACKGROUND: The time to pharyngeal polymerase chain reaction (PCR) negativity (TPCRN) in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is influenced by multiple factors. This study aimed to investigate the association between clinical symptoms of COVID-19 patients and TPCRN. METHODS: This retrospective study enrolled 486 participants with COVID-19, aged 18-89 years, who were admitted to Shanghai Lingang Makeshift Hospital between April 10, 2022, and May 20, 2022. Clinical data, including patient demographics, clinical symptoms, and TPCRN, were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: This study enrolled COVID-19 patients with a median age of 38 years, consisting of 66.05% males and 33.95% females. Stepwise (forward selection) analyses revealed a positive association between TPCRN and the clinical symptoms of throat pain (B = 1.277, 95% CI = 0.592-1.962, P < 0.001) and diarrhea (B = 1.445, 95% CI = 0.382-2.508, P = 0.008) in COVID-19 patients. Logistic regression analysis indicated that throat pain was associated with a lower 7-day negative nucleic acid conversion rate (OR = 0.584, 95% CI:0.362-0.943, P = 0.028), as was diarrhea (OR = 0.435, 95% CI:0.220-0.860, P = 0.017). CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that throat pain and diarrhea are associated with a longer time to pharyngeal polymerase chain reaction (PCR) negativity. These results may assist in identifying high-risk patients with delayed viral clearance and provide a reference for optimizing clinical management strategies for this patient population. CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER: Not applicable.