Overview
This guideline covers managing COVID-19 in babies, children, young people and adults in community and hospital settings. It includes recommendations on communication, assessment, therapeutics for COVID-19, non-invasive respiratory support, preventing and managing acute complications, and identifying and managing co-infections.
NICE has also produced COVID-19 rapid guidelines on managing long-term effects of COVID-19 (‘long COVID’) and haematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) safety alert for Philips ventilator, CPAP and BiPAP devices: In June 2021, the MHRA issued a National Patient Safety Alert for Philips ventilator, CPAP and BiPAP devices: Potential for patient harm due to inhalation of particles and volatile organic compounds. This applies to all devices manufactured before 26 April 2021.
Last reviewed: 26 February 2026
We updated links to relevant technology appraisal guidance in the section on therapeutics for COVID-19. This is to provide easy access to relevant guidance at the right point in the guideline only and is not a change in practice.
Next review: This guideline will be reviewed if there is new evidence that is likely to change the recommendations.
How we prioritise updating our guidance
Decisions about updating our guidance are made by NICE’s prioritisation board. For more information on the principles and process, see NICE-wide topic prioritisation: the manual.
For information about individual topics, including any decisions affecting this guideline, see the summary table of prioritisation board decisions.
Guideline development process
This guideline uses the methods and process in NICE's interim process and methods for guidelines developed in response to health and social care emergencies.
We collaborated with the Australian National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce during development of the guideline, and acknowledge their contribution to identifying and reviewing the evidence for therapeutics.
Your responsibility
The recommendations in this guideline represent the view of NICE, arrived at after careful consideration of the evidence available. When exercising their judgement, professionals and practitioners are expected to take this guideline fully into account, alongside the individual needs, preferences and values of their patients or the people using their service. It is not mandatory to apply the recommendations, and the guideline does not override the responsibility to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual, in consultation with them and their families and carers or guardian.
All problems (adverse events) related to a medicine or medical device used for treatment or in a procedure should be reported to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency using the Yellow Card Scheme.
Local commissioners and providers of healthcare have a responsibility to enable the guideline to be applied when individual professionals and people using services wish to use it. They should do so in the context of local and national priorities for funding and developing services, and in light of their duties to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, to advance equality of opportunity and to reduce health inequalities. Nothing in this guideline should be interpreted in a way that would be inconsistent with complying with those duties.
Commissioners and providers have a responsibility to promote an environmentally sustainable health and care system and should assess and reduce the environmental impact of implementing NICE recommendations wherever possible.