TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s leading medical institute has called for the implementation of a risk score for more efficient screening as the country braces itself for a possible community-level outbreak of the Wuhan virus (COVID-19).

Such a mechanism will help mitigate the impact of a second-wave outbreak while getting the most use of limited testing kits, said Chen Hsiu-hsi (陳秀熙), vice dean of National Taiwan University’s College of Public Health on Monday (Feb. 24).

According to the scale he proposed, those who receive scores of 40 or higher should be tested for the coronavirus. Scores are measured based on the symptoms and underlying health condition of the patient, wrote CNA.

For example, those who exhibit coughing (8 points) and shortness of breath (17) and have diabetes (10) and hypertension (10) would accumulate 45 points, while symptoms related to influenza would subtract points from a score to better identify patients infected with the novel virus. Those include nasal congestion (-10), a sore throat (-15), headache (-10), muscle pain (-10), Chen suggested.

He designed the measurement after studying cases reported in China, and it may need to be adjusted by medical experts, CNA quoted him as saying. He believes the system will significantly alleviate the burden on frontline workers and maximize limited resources.