CDC Updates Coronavirus Guidance

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued new guidance on the screening and treatment of patients with suspected novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). This new guidance “supersedes guidance in CDC’s HAN 426 distributed on January 17, 2020.”

The guidance includes a new flowchart demonstrating proper assessment of patients with suspected coronavirus, as well as a chart of combinations of clinical features and epidemiologic risk for determining whether patients should be under investigation for the illness.

Further, the new recommendations suggest that nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs and sputum, if possible, should be collected for initial diagnostic testing.

As of February 2, 2020, 14,557 cases have been confirmed globally, with 14,411 in China (2110 of those severe and 304 deaths) and 146 outside of China (1 death). The first death to occur outside of China was in the Philippines.

—Michael Potts

References:

1. Update and Interim Guidance on Outbreak of 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) [press release]. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; February 1, 2020. https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/han00427.asp.
2. Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) situation report -13 [news release]. World Health Organization; February 2, 2020. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200202-sitrep-13-ncov-v3.pdf.