Simple, fast and affordable triaging pathway for COVID-19

Coronavirus disease 2019 has caused a global pandemic. The majority of patients will experience mild disease, but others will develop a severe respiratory infection that requires hospitalisation. This is causing a significant strain on health services. Patients are presenting at emergency departments with symptoms of dyspnoea, dry cough and fever with varying severity. The appropriate triaging of patients will assist in preventing health services becoming overwhelmed during the pandemic. This is assisted through clinical assessment and various imaging and laboratory investigations, including chest X-ray, blood analysis and identification of viral infection with SARS-CoV-2. Here, a succinct triaging pathway that aims to be fast, reliable and affordable is presented. The hope is that such a pathway will assist health services in appropriately combating the pandemic.

Automated summary

The global pandemic of the 2019 Coronavirus Disease has caused significant strain on health services due to the varying severity of symptoms in patients. Proper triaging through clinical assessment and imaging/laboratory investigations helps prevent overwhelming of health services. A succinct triaging pathway is proposed to assist health services in combating the pandemic effectively.