Locations with developing health-care systems and limited human resources need a rapid and simple tool to decide who requires isolation and targeted testing for COVID-19.
The concise flowchart accessed via the link below is the result of condensing complex information about triage and clinical care for patients who have this new pathogen. This unsophisticated COVID-19 screening algorithm may be useful to train frontline health workers in resource-limited settings to triage patients effectively.
The algorithm triages patients initially on the basis of fever (subjective or measured) or cough, symptoms that are near universal among patients with COVID-19. If these symptoms are combined with epidemiological risk, then patients are isolated, appropriate infection prevention and control measures are implemented, and testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is initiated. This approach is simple and uses readily available technology. The most advanced tool required is a thermometer.