TY - JOUR T1 - Health-code-based triage versus universal COVID-19 PCR testing before endoscopy in a low incidence area: a real-world experience JF - Gut JO - Gut DO - 10.1136/gutjnl-2022-328551 SP - gutjnl-2022-328551 AU - Zhihui Duan AU - Dengxiang Liu AU - Shengyun Zhou AU - Hui Li AU - Xiaofang Sun AU - Chunqian Zhao AU - Qiong Duan AU - Liwei Li AU - Xiaochong Zhang AU - Lingxuan Jin Y1 - 2022/11/09 UR - http://gut.bmj.com/content/early/2022/11/08/gutjnl-2022-328551.abstract N2 - Guidelines recently recommended against routine pre-endoscopy testing for SARS-CoV-2. We retrospectively collected data from 1 January 2021 to 31 July 2022 from our endoscopy centre located in a low incidence area. In total, 46 111 endoscopies were performed based on the health-code-based triage strategy combined with two other strategies—no reverse-transcription (RT)-PCR testing before endoscopy (n=27 193) and mandatory RT-PCR testing within 1–7 days before endoscopy (n=18 918). No staff or patients were infected with SARS-CoV-2 during the study period. Benefits of pre-endoscopy RT-PCR were minor when there were no COVID-19 positive cases in the local area; we conclude that health-code-based triage together with mandatory wearing of surgical masks by staff may be sufficient in low incidence areas.As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect all healthcare activities, its long-term impact on gastroenterological procedure volumes had been shown in many countries.1 2 A significant backlog of procedures has remained.1 2 As upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopies carry a potentially high risk of respiratory aerosols, they should be performed wearing appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE).3In 2020, the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) suggested a pretesting strategy for most … ER -