Table 3.

Executive Summary of Recommendations

Variable	Recommendation statements	Strength of recommendation and certainty of evidence
Masks	In health care workers performing upper GI procedures, regardless of COVID-19 status,a the AGA recommends use of N95 (or N99, or PAPR) instead of surgical masks, as part of appropriate PPE.	Strong recommendation, moderate certainty of evidence
	In health care workers performing lower GI procedures regardless of COVID-19 status,a the AGA recommends the use of N95 (or N99 or PAPR) masks instead of surgical masks as part of appropriate PPE.	Strong recommendation, low certainty of evidence
	In health care workers performing upper GI procedures, in known or presumptive COVID-19 patients, the AGA recommends against the use of surgical masks only, as part of adequate PPE.	Strong recommendation, low certainty of evidence
Gloves	In health care workers performing any GI procedure, regardless of COVID-19 status, the AGA recommends the use of double gloves compared with single gloves as part of appropriate PPE.	Strong recommendation, moderate certainty of evidence
Negative-pressure rooms	In health care workers performing any GI procedures with known or presumptive COVID-19, the AGA suggests the use of negative-pressure rooms over regular endoscopy rooms when available.	Conditional recommendation, very low certainty of evidence
Endoscopic disinfection	For endoscopes utilized on patients regardless of COVID status, the AGA recommends continuing standard cleaning endoscopic disinfection and reprocessing protocols.	Good practice statement
Triage	All procedures should be reviewed by trained medical personnel and categorized as time-sensitive or not time-sensitive as a framework for triaging procedures.	Good practice statement
	In an open access endoscopy system where the listed indication alone may provide insufficient information to make a determination about the time-sensitive nature of the procedure, consideration should be given for the following options: a telephone consultation with the referring provider or a telehealth visit with the patient or a multidisciplinary team approach to facilitate decision-making for complicated patients.	Good practice statement

^aThese recommendations assume the absence of widespread reliable rapid testing for the diagnosis of COVID-19 infection or immunity.