Background: With COVID-19 cases rising, despite CT chest being of value in diagnosis and prognostication in COVID-19, its role in mild or asymptomatic suspected COVID-19, before RT-PCR test is lacking

Method: This is a retrospective observational study involving asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic clinically suspected COVID-19 infection in a high endemicity area Of 2532 HRCT chest database, 376 eligible cases were analyzed for clinico-radiological correlation for CT findings based CORADS and CT severity score between positive vs negative group

Results: Of 376 , 186 (48 46 %) had COVID-19 features on HRCT in mild and asymptomatic suspected patients 98 (26 06 %) had CO-RARDS - 5 , 88 (23 40 %) had CO-RADS - 4 48 (12 76 %), 128 (34 04 %), 14 (3 72 %) had CO-RADS score of 3,2,1, respectively Positive CT findings were more likely beyond 3 days of symptoms compared to those presenting earlier {days: (Mean) 4 2 vs 2 76} Positive CT was significantly associated with patients with anosmia and dyspnea The common presenting symptoms were Fever 196 (52 12 %) and followed by sore throat in 173 (46 01 %) The common HRCT findings were Ground glass opacity (GGO) (74 60 %), followed by Lymphadenopathy (LN) (27 92 %) LN which was more prevalent in symptomatic patients {99/343 (28 86 %) vs {6/33 (18 18 %) } asymptomatics (P : 0 04) } Consolidation was significantly more in asymptomatics with COPD (P : 0 004) 6 (3 22 %) patients had CT score & gt; 17/25 Conclusion: Chest HRCT picked 48 46% positive cases in mildly symptomatic and asymptomatic patients of which 3 22% had severe involvement (& gt; 17) Being a noninvasive, rapid, sensitive, low risk of cross infection with high reproducibility, chest CT is worth evaluating as screening modality even in asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic clinically suspected COVID-19 © 2021 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications All rights reserved