Experience on radiological examinations and infection prevention for COVID-19 in radiology department

Abstract In December 2019, a cluster of patients with emerging pneumonia of unknown etiology were discovered in Wuhan city, China. Laboratory examination identified a novel coronavirus which was tentatively named as 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) by the World Health Organization (WHO) in January 2020. The WHO has more recently formally named the 2019-nCoV as coronavirus Diseases 2019 (COVID-19). Within one month, the novel coronavirus rapidly spread across the whole of China through droplet transmission and contact transmission, and the reported number of confirmed COVID-19 cases demonstrated a rising trend. Radiological examinations, especially computed tomography CT, were confirmed as effective methods for the screening and diagnosis of infected cases. Reports stated that many radiologists and technologists were being infected when examining patients with COVID-19. In order to clarify the imaging features of COVID-19 and reduce the infection risk of medical personnel in radiology departments, we summarized the experience on radiological examinations and infection prevention for COVID-19, aiming to guide virus prevention, diagnosis and control within radiology departments.