Patient Sampling  Purpose: diagnosis of SARS‐CoV‐2 pneumoniaDesign: cross‐sectional multicentre prospective studyRecruitment: hospitalised pneumonia patientsSample size: n = 53 (20 cases)Inclusion criteria: suspected SARS‐COV‐2 pneumonia patients, defined as having pneumonia after chest CT (with 1 of the 2 following criteria met: fever or respiratory symptoms, normal or decreased WBC counts/decreasedExclusion criteria: not defined