From an ER doc in New York City on shift today:

[elias7]

3. They're being presumptively diagnosed with COVID

and sent home, because there is no treatment unless they need to be admitted to the hospital with hypoxia. There’s probably so many at this point, that there’s no point in counting, and it’s a waste of resources to test symptomatic people and risk further exposure, when the docs are spending their time treating folks who can’t breathe.

People who have symptoms but are breathing OK just need to stop coming to the ER and self-quarantine for a few weeks, returning to the ER if they are failing.

Consider... once the virus has definitely arrived, what’s the point in testing? It’s like influenza... we don’t need to test for it to know it when we see it. We prescribe tamiflu if it’s within 48-72 hours and tell people to g9 home and take care of themselves and don’t infect others.