All positive COVID-19 results will be phoned by the microbiologists to the referring doctor. Simultaneously, results will be notified electronically to the relevant public health department.

It is the referrer’s responsibility to follow-up on patient results.

20/05/2020 - All results are reported to the referring doctor and negative results are sent directly by SMS to those patients who have provided their mobile phone number.

Recommendations for clearing COVID-19 patients from isolation does vary from state to state. Please check the guidelines appropriate to your area. Links can be found on our 'Links and resources' page.

In general, it is possible for patients to have a positive PCR test (or an intermittent positive PCR test) for at least three weeks following infection. The detection of residual RNA does not necessarily mean that the patient is still infectious.

Currently, most guidelines restrict clearance testing to specific high-risk indications and use clinical criteria (e.g >10 days since onset and >72 hours symptom-free) to allow patients to cease isolation.

• Doctor or health care practitioner collect
• SNP respiratory testing centre
• Public hospital fever clinic
• SNP's mobile collection service. For more information on this service including patient criteria please contact our Patient Services support team on (07) 3377 8747.

Children are rarely severely affected by the virus, particularly children <10 years old, and even babies. The reason why this is the case remain unclear.

It is unclear if children with underlying chronic medical conditions (e.g. diabetes, malignancy, asthma) are at risk of any increase in severity. Reports of severely affected children from countries where the disease has been widespread (e.g. Italy, Spain, UK, USA) are still rare.

Children usually acquire infection from infected adults who have been in close contact with them (e.g. in households)

Child-to-child or child-to-adult transmission is uncommon.

Investigations of outbreaks in schools have not uncovered large groups of infected, asymptomatic children, as was originally feared.

There have been several reports in recent weeks of children with a Kawasaki Syndrome-like illness presenting to hospitals in countries where COVID-19 has been widely circulating in the community. These include Spain, Italy, France, UK, and New York (USA). None have been reported in Australia to date.

Currently, this illness has not been proven to be directly caused by COVID-19, but there is concern it may represent a rare post-infectious phenomenon. The WHO have released a case definition (link: https://www.who.int/publications-detail/multisystem-inflammatory-syndrome-in-children-and-adolescents-with-covid-19 ) to aid in identifying further cases.

Children are generally older than those seen with Kawasaki Syndrome (usually < 5 years), present acutely with high fever, high inflammatory markers, rash, conjunctivitis, abdominal pain, mucosal changes and swelling and maybe severely unwell.

Exclusion and empiric treatment of more common causes of such a presentation (such as Toxic Shock from Streptococcus pyogenes or Staphylococcus aureus, or sepsis) is vital.

Treatment of PIMS-TS  currently is similar to Kawasaki Syndrome, with IVIG, prompt supportive care, and other immunomodulatory agents.