GRADE evidence profile
| Certainty assessment | Number of patients | Effect | Certainty | Importance | ||||||||
| Number of studies | Study design | Risk of bias | Inconsistency | Indirectness | Imprecision | Other considerations | Specific management strategy (including ventilation, PPE and disposal) | No specific management strategy | Relative (95% CI) | Absolute (95% CI) | | |
| Suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection (assessed with proportion of personnel with SARS infection) | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Observational studies | Very serious* | Not serious | Serious† | Very serious‡ | None | Out of the 23 personnel who performed the autopsies, none demonstrated any evidence on SARS infection | ⨁◯◯◯ Very low | Critical | |||
| Suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection (assessed with evaluation of decontamination measured by sarin simulant test in a SARS laboratory) | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Observational studies | Very serious* | Not serious | Very serious§ | Not serious | None | Sarin concentration in the contaminated area decreased from 10 to 2 ppm to 0 ppm, and sarin was undetectable in the clean area and the semi-contaminated area | ⨁◯◯◯ Very low | Critical | |||
*Downgraded by two levels due to very serious risk of bias. A case study with high risk for confounding bias and selection bias.
†Downgraded by one level due to indirectness, as evidence related to SARS. Refer to the detailed indirectness assessment in the indirectness table.
‡Downgraded by two levels due to very serious imprecision. Low number of participants and events.
§Downgraded by two levels due to very serious indirectness as evidence related to SARS and to a surrogate outcome. Refer to the detailed indirectness assessment in the indirectness table.
PPE, personal protective equipment.