Exploring the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the medical emergency calls and calls for cardiovascular diseases in Hangzhou, China

Chen, Juan; Cheng, Yong-ran; Fu, Xin-yan; Wang, Chun-yi; Wen, Wen; Ni, Jie; Jiang, Jing-jie; Xu, Zhao; Zhou, Meng-Yun; Ye, Lan; Feng, Zhan-hui; Liu, Gang; Wang, Ming-Wei; Zhang, Xing-wei; Ge, Zhong-jun; Chen, Guo-fan

AIMS: We aimed to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on emergency and cardiovascular disease–related calls in Hangzhou, China. METHODS: We conducted a single-center retrospective study, collecting data on emergency calls to the Hangzhou Emergency Center (HEC) during the COVID-19 epidemic (January 20, 2020, to March 15, 2020). Data were compared with the same period in 2019. RESULTS: Compared to 2019, the number of emergency calls has dropped by 21.63%, ambulance calls by 29.02%, rescue calls by 22.57%, and cardiovascular disease-related emergency calls by 32.86%. The numbers of emergency, ambulance, and rescue calls in 2020 were significantly lower than in 2019. CONCLUSIONS: During the COVID-19 epidemic in Hangzhou, the numbers of emergency and cardiovascular disease–related calls have decreased significantly. These results point to a severe social problem that requires the attention of the medical community and the government.