There are many causes of itchy throat and cough, including allergic rhinitis, nasopharyngitis, pharyngitis, sinusitis, etc. It is not possible to confirm the diagnosis of novel coronavirus infection just by itchy throat and cough. Novel coronavirus infection is mainly manifested by fever, dry cough and weakness, and a few patients have symptoms such as nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat, myalgia and diarrhea. The diagnosis of novel coronavirus infection should be confirmed by epidemiological history and clinical symptoms, and the next step of nucleic acid testing, antibody assay and gene sequencing should be performed after the proposed diagnosis of suspected case, rather than diagnosing novel coronavirus infection only by the symptoms of itchy throat and desire to cough.