Li J, Gao R, Wu G, et al. - Clinical symptoms and epidemiologic features of emergency surgery patients (ESPs) infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were investigated via performing a retrospective cohort study of 164 emergency surgery patients with or without COVID-19 pneumonia in Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University in Wuhan, China. Among the assessed cases, COVID-19 pneumonia was diagnosed in 54 after operation; the median age was 46 y; 136 (82.9%) were women and 28 (17.1%) were men. This study suggests marked differences in clinical symptoms of emergency surgery patients infected with COVID-19 vs those with common COVID-19 pneumonia. The fever continued more than 7 days in postoperative patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, this is more than common postoperative patients. Furthermore, 81.5% patients had cough, 88.9% patients experienced fatigue, 96.3% had nausea, and 85.2% exhibited dizziness among ESPs infected with COVID-19. The bilateral or unilateral ground-glass opacities were identified in the lung CT of all the ESPs infected with COVID-19. Lymphopenia and increased C-reactive protein were noted in routine blood tests. They posed a strong insidious and infectious risk to the healthcare workers caring them.