COVID-19 and gastrointestinal endoscopy: Importance of reducing SARS-CoV-2 infection risks of medical workers and preserving personal protective equipment resources.

: In December 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) was informed of cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology detected in Wuhan, China. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), a novel coronavirus, was identified and SARS-CoV-2 related disease, called coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has spread worldwide. The WHO has declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Clinical symptoms of the COVID-19 includes cough (67.8%), fever (43.8%), fatigue (38.1%), production of sputum (33.7%), and shortness of breath (18.7%). Gastrointestinal symptoms of COVID-19 include nausea or vomiting (5.0%), as well as diarrhea (3.8%) 1 . It is estimated that 1.2% of infected subjects are asymptomatic, but the rate of severe disease is 13.9% with an overall mortality rate of 2.3% 2 .