The diagnosis of novel coronavirus cannot be made solely on the basis of symptoms. The main clinical manifestations are dry cough, fever and malaise, but there are also many concomitant symptoms associated with fever and cough, such as dizziness with fever and shortness of breath and chest tightness with cough. Symptoms alone do not exclude novel coronavirus infection, but also depend on whether the patient has an epidemiologic history and whether laboratory tests can meet the criteria for novel coronavirus infection. If the patient has an epidemiological history, he or she should be isolated and observed after the onset of symptoms and a nucleic acid test should be performed. A positive nucleic acid test will also identify novel coronavirus infection regardless of the symptomatic presentation. If there is no epidemiological history and none of the laboratory tests meet the criteria for novel coronavirus infection, then chest tightness and dizziness should be considered as symptoms caused by other diseases, such as hypertension and coronary artery disease.