At first, COVID-19 appeared in a few clusters and was more likely to affect persons with advanced age or other comorbidities, but it is now more widespread. Infection can result in severe pneumonia and even fatal respiratory diseases such as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) [1, 2]. The main clinical presentation includes fever, dry cough, fatigue, and malaise and/or non-specific upper respiratory tract infection symptoms that may not be particularly noticeable. As previously reported [1], patients with severe illness can develop dyspnea and some even developed ARDS and required ICU admission and oxygen therapy. Laboratory findings of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 include lymphopenia, elevated CRP, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Genetic sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 has enabled the rapid development of point-of-care real-time RT-PCR diagnostic tests specific for COVID-19 [3, 4]. Novel coronavirus nucleic acids are detected in throat swabs, sputum, lower respiratory tract secretions, and blood. At present, the diagnosis of COVID-19 is primarily based on the patient’s epidemiological history, clinical symptoms, chest imaging findings, and etiological evidence. Viral nucleic acid testing is an important diagnostic criterion; however, it has some limitations. False negatives from viral nucleic acid testing arise from the uneven quantity of detection technology, disease characteristics (asymptomatic patients), and status of epidemic prevention and control, as well as errors in clinical sampling [5]. COVID-19 is highly contagious; thus, early detection and diagnosis are of paramount importance to isolate suspected cases and contacts to control the outbreak. The challenges in identification of pathogens by viral nucleic acid testing have made some frontline clinicians propose CT as a diagnostic method for identifying COVID-19 patients. This review aims to briefly introduce the novel coronavirus pneumonia and highlight the value of imaging in its diagnosis.