Patients should be screened for clinical and epidemiological risk of COVID-19 based on the current Australian definition of a suspect case.
The definition incorporates travel history, contact with known or suspected cases of COVID-19, and signs and symptoms associated with COVID-19, including fever.
Depending on local rates of community transmission, individual states and territories may recommend testing to manage risks for patients, healthcare workers and health service organisations. The mortality and morbidity rates for patients who have COVID-19 undergoing both elective and emergency surgery are higher than otherwise expected, even when such surgery is relatively minor. Therefore, it is usually safer to postpone elective surgery for someone who is symptomatic or who tests positive for COVID-19. Emergency surgery should not be delayed either because a patient is a COVID-19 case or while waiting for a test result where there is additional risk to the patient's clinical condition.