In patients with pneumonia due to novel coronavirus infection, a dry cough is a common clinical symptom, characterized by the absence or low volume of sputum, mainly due to bronchial and tracheal irritation. In addition to the dry cough, it is usually accompanied by fever, malaise, and dyspnea. Some patients have a mild onset of symptoms and may even have no significant fever. Cough is essentially a protective physiological reflex, usually accompanied by the coughing up of respiratory secretions or foreign bodies, and there are many different types of coughs, of which dry cough is one, distinguished by the presence or absence of secretions. Content source: Dr. You Lai