¶ Recommendations for COVID-19: Case Definition, Specimen Collection, and Diagnostic Tests
Translation Section Editor
Prof. Wang-Huei Sheng, M.D. PhD
April 16, 2020
¶ 1. Clinical Presentation Criteria
One or more of the following:
- Fever (≧ 38°C) or symptoms of acute respiratory tract infection.
- Abnormal sense of smell (anosmia), abnormal sense of taste (dysgeusia), or diarrhea of unknown etiology.
- Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) highly suspected to be COVID-19 by doctors.
¶ 2. Laboratory Diagnosis Criteria
One or more of the following:
- Pathogen (SARS-CoV-2) isolated and identified from a clinical specimen (nasopharyngeal swab, throat swab, expectorated sputum, or lower respiratory tract aspirates).
- Positive molecular biological testing for viral (SARS-CoV-2) RNA from a clinical specimen (nasopharyngeal swab, throat swab, expectorated sputum, or lower respiratory tract aspirates).
¶ 3. Epidemiological Criteria
One or more of the following within 14 days prior to symptom onset:
- History of traveling or living abroad, or contact with symptomatic (fever or other respiratory tract infection symptoms) individuals returning from abroad.
- History of close contact with symptomatic suspected or confirmed case(s), including caring for or interacting with these individuals, or direct contact with body fluid or respiratory secretions without adequate personal protective equipment (PPE).
- History of cluster related to confirmed cases
¶ 4. Reporting Requirements for COVID-19
Any cases with one or more of the following conditions should be reported to the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC):
- Meet clinical presentation criteria 1 AND one or more epidemiological criteria.
- Meet clinical presentation criteria 2 AND any of epidemiological criteria 1 or 2.
- Meet clinical presentation criteria 3.
- Meet laboratory diagnosis criteria.
¶ 5. Case definitions
- Suspected case: meet clinical presentation criteria but not laboratory proven, plus history of close contact with symptomatic confirmed case(s) within 14 days prior to symptom onset.
- Confirmed case: meet laboratory diagnosis criteria, regardless of clinical signs and symptoms.
¶ Specimen Collection and Diagnostic Tests
Please refer to table 1.
Table 1: Specimen Collection, Handling, and Diagnostic Tests
¶ Contributions
Translation Associate Editor
Li-Tien Hsu
Translator
Cheng-Yen Li
Typographers
Yi-Yun Cheng, Yao-Chung Chang