More than one-third of patients with COVID-19 may have neurological manifestations, and these are more common in severe disease, according to a Chinese study.

Researchers from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and colleagues reviewed the medical records of 214 consecutive patients with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 admitted to three special care centres in Wuhan between 16 January and 19 February.

Some 88 (41%) had severe infection. These patients were older and more likely to have comorbidities, and less likely to have typical symptoms, the authors wrote in JAMA Neurology.

Neurological manifestations were recorded in 46% of the patients with severe illness, compared with 30% of those with milder disease and typically appeared within the first one or two days of hospitalisation, the authors found.