Objective: to describe the sociodemographic, epidemiological and clinical characteristics of the initial cases of COVID-19 in the municipality of Sobral, Ceará, Brazil. Materials and methods: descriptive, temporal and quantitative epidemiological study, developed in the municipality of Sobral - Ceará, Brazil, with 110 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Descriptive and analytical analysis was performed, using the Chi-square test and Logistic Regression to verify the association between variables. The level of significance was set at 95% (p≤0.05). Results: it was observed that 60% of cases occurred in women, 74.5% were adults between 20 and 59 years old, 15.5% health workers and the lethality rate was 1.8%. In 58.2% of cases the main reporting unit was the hospital, 10% required hospitalization, and 64.5% were diagnosed with rapid tests. The main symptoms manifested were: cough (58.2%), fever (57.3%), sore throat (36.4%) and difficulty breathing (31.9%). There was an association between age and the presence of fever, cough and sore throat (p=0.05). Conclusion: The results suggest that older people are more susceptible to some symptoms when compared to younger people. Associated with global estimates, this work can provide subsidies for COVID-19 prevention and control actions in small and medium-sized Brazilian municipalities.