COVID-19 prevention and control recommendations for the ICU

No abstract available. Article truncated after 150 words. Background: • COVID-19 is likely somewhat more infectious than influenza (R value in 2-3 range), and can be transmitted by asymptomatic/presymptomatic persons. • COVID-19 is already in the community and likely being spread from person to person, Therefore, not all COVID-19 patients will present with a recognized exposure history. Furthermore, fever and pneumonia are not universally present. • As of this writing, >3,300 healthcare workers have been confirmed infected globally with 6 deaths. • Testing is currently extremely limited in the US with only a minority of potential cases having been tested at this time. This will likely improve over the next few days to weeks. True incidence likely much higher than reported rates of “confirmed COVID-19”. • About 15% of patients with confirmed COVID-19 have severe disease and 5% require ICU level care. Mortality rates of approximately 1-2% may be confounded by undertesting, but is currently more than 10 times higher than that of …