Potential Solutions for Triage, Screening, and Severity Scoring of Potentially-Positive COVID-19 Patients in Low-Resource Settings: A Scoping Review

Derivation of a Contextually-Appropriate COVID-19 Mortality Scale for Low-Resource Settings

“…A set of potentially predictive variables was defined a priori based on a review of validation data for previously designed pneumonia and sepsis scores, and purpose-designed COVID-19 indices, in COVID-19 populations (Appendix 1). This list was generated in the context of the results of two studies—a scoping review and systematic review and meta-analysis—that evaluated the feasibility and significance of a range of variables in predicting severe COVID-19 in LRS [ 15 23 ]. These potential candidate predictor variables comprise demographic and historical data, presenting signs and symptoms, and vital signs and associated parameters consistently identified to be clinically important in COVID-19 cohorts.…”

“…A recent review identified 39 risk stratification scores (including severity and mortality indices) being used for COVID-19 prognostication. Only two of these tools were deemed feasible for use in LRS, where laboratory and imaging are not readily available, and neither was intended for such a setting or validated in it [ 15 16 17 18 ]. The enduring impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on LMICs make it essential that clinical decision-making tools with the potential to reduce mortality be made widely available.…”