Our large tertiary care ED in Queens, NY, usually sees more than 100,000 adults a year. As we write this, we have 850 COVID-19-likely or -positive patients (several hundred above our bed capacity just one month ago), more than 100 of them on ventilators.

We have learned so much from treating COVID-19 patients in the emergency department, on the floor, and in the intensive care unit and by examining the available literature. We hope this summary will help with acute ED management.

The workup for patients suspected to have COVID-19 is variable and depends on their clinical presentation at the time of evaluation. For those who have normal vital signs and appear clinically well with an uncomplicated medical history, it would be reasonable to treat and release them with quarantine directions, instructions on supportive care, and strict, detailed return precautions.

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