Status of COVID-19
As of 19 March 2020,
COVID-19 is no longer considered to be a high
consequence infectious diseases (HCID)
in the UK.
The 4 nations public
health
HCID group made an interim recommendation in
January 2020 to classify COVID-19 as an
HCID.
This was based on
consideration of the UK
HCID
criteria about the virus and the disease with
information available during the early stages of the
outbreak.
Now that more is known
about COVID-19, the public health bodies in the UK have
reviewed the most up to date information about COVID-19
against the UK
HCID
criteria.
They have determined that
several features have now changed; in particular, more
information is available about mortality rates (low
overall), and there is now greater clinical awareness
and a specific and sensitive laboratory test, the
availability of which continues to increase.
The Advisory Committee on
Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP) is also of the opinion that
COVID-19 should no longer be classified as an
HCID.
The need to have a
national, coordinated response remains, but this is
being met by the
government's COVID-19 response.
Cases of COVID-19 are no
longer managed by
HCID
treatment centers only.
All healthcare workers
managing possible and confirmed cases should follow the
updated national infection and
prevention (IPC)
guidance for COVID-19, which supersedes all
previous
IPC guidance for COVID-19.
This guidance includes
instructions about different personal protective
equipment (PPE)
ensembles that are appropriate for different clinical
scenarios.
Source
