COVID-19: accurate interpretation of diagnostic tests—a statistical point of view

Excerpt

Severe acute respiratory syndrome-corona virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is highly contagious, and is transmitted through human respiratory droplets and aerosols, and direct contact [1‐3]. Among healthcare workers, we anesthesiologists, intensivists and emergency doctors, are particularly at increased risk of infection, as we frequently need to carry out procedures, which would increase the risk of spreading viral droplets and aerosol from the patient’s airway (so-called “aerosol-generating procedures”): tracheal intubation and extubation, mask ventilation, tracheostomy, high-flow oxygen delivery, bronchoscopy, and removal of oropharyngeal or tracheal secretion by suction [3]. …