Early case recognition and classification of disease severity
A physiological parameter-based warning score is used to facilitate early recognition of patients with severe infection and admission decisions according to the severity classification. The score is a modified version of the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) with age ≥ 65 years added as an independent risk factor based on recent reports [7, 8] (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1 Early warning score and rules for 2019-nCoV infected patients. *CCRRT: Critical Care Rapid Response Team
Patients are divided into four risk categories based on the score: low, median, high, and exceptional. A specially assigned physician or the special critical care team decides which patients need to be treated in the ICU, taking into consideration the disease severity, opportunity to benefit, and sources of support (Fig. 1).