Could self-reported symptoms be predictors of RT-PCR positivity in suspected COVID-19 cases? The Libya experience.

Background: COVID-19 has symptoms similar to several other respiratory and non-respiratory diseases, which makes differentiating them a challenging task and could lead to unnecessary use of realtime reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) resources.

Aims: The study aimed to assess self-reported symptoms as predictors for RT-PCR positivity in suspected COVID-19 cases.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study.