A network between infectious diseases department and general practitioners for COVID-19 patients: towards a strengthened link?

General practitioners (GPs) play a crucial role in primary care, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, collaborating with Infectious Diseases (ID) specialists. After a training period, a selected group of GPs were able to prospectively enroll patients with mild-moderate COVID-19. Clinical features, symptoms and treatment prescribed were collected. The network provided that GPs could call ID specialists through a dedicated phone number/email address asking for treatment strategies advices. In two months period, 13/16 GPs enrolled 208 patients: 92(44%) females, 110(53%) older than 65 years old. The majority of patients, 156(75%), presented to their GP within 5 days from the symptom onset and 147/201(73%) patients were positive for SARS-CoV-2. The ID consultation was requested for 12/147 (8%) patients and no antibiotic prescription was made on the SARS-CoV-2 positive group. The future goal would be to expand the network in not COVID-19, improving the management of antibiotic therapy for community acquired respiratory infections.