Since the outbreak of a novel coronavirus in Wuhan in December 2019 and its subsequent evolution to a pandemic in March 2020, there has been growing interest in the utility of lung ultrasound in the workup and management of COVID-19.

Given that imaging findings are nonspecific, in a clinically well patient with mild symptoms, there is no role for lung ultrasound. These patients should be tested with nasopharyngeal swabs for RT-PCR according to local public health guidelines.

There have been reports of cases of patients with typical chest CT findings of COVID-19 who had initial negative RT-PCR results. All 5 of these patients ultimately had positive RT-PCR results after repeated testing.

Lung ultrasound may be helpful for patients with a high clinical suspicion of COVID-19 but negative RT-PCR screening if they demonstrate typical lung ultrasound findings for COVID-19.

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