| Shrnutí: | The diffusion of SARS-CoV-2, starting from China in December 2019, has led to a pandemic, reaching Italy in February 2020. Previous studies in Asia have shown that the median duration of SARS-CoV-2 viral shedding was approximately 12–20 days. We considered a cohort of patients recovered from COVID-19 showing that the median disease duration between onset and end of COVID-19 symptoms was 27.5 days (interquartile range (IQR): 17.0–33.2) and that the median duration between onset of symptoms and microbiological healing, defined by two consecutive negative nasopharyngeal swabs, was 38 days (IQR: 31.7–50.2). A longer duration of COVID-19 with delayed clinical healing (symptom-free) occurred in patients presenting at admission a lower PaO<sub>2</sub>/FiO<sub>2</sub> ratio (<i>p</i> < 0.001), a more severe clinical presentation (<i>p</i> = 0.001) and a lower lymphocyte count (<i>p</i> = 0.035). Moreover, patients presenting at admission a lower PaO<sub>2</sub>/FiO<sub>2</sub> ratio and more severe disease showed longer viral shedding (<i>p</i> = 0.031 and <i>p</i> = 0.032, respectively). In addition, patients treated with corticosteroids had delayed clinical healing (<i>p</i> = 0.013).
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