Critical care demand and intensive care supply for patients in Japan with COVID-19 at the time of the state of emergency declaration in April 2020: a descriptive analysis

Fujii, Yosuke; Hirota, Kiichi

BackgroundThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic overwhelms Japans intensive care capacity. This study aimed to determine the number of patients with COVID-19 who required intensive care and to compare the numbers with Japans intensive care capacity. MethodsPublically available datasets were used to obtain the number of confirmed patients with COVID-19 undergoing mechanical ventilation and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) between February 15 and July 19, 2020, to determine and compare intensive care unit (ICU) and attending bed needs for patients with COVID-19, and to estimate peak ICU demands in Japan. ResultsDuring the epidemic peak in late April, 11443 patients (1.03/10000 adults) had been infected, 373 patients (0.034/10000 adults) were in ICU, 312 patients (0.028/10000 adults) were receiving mechanical ventilation, and 62 patients (0.0056/10000 adults) were under ECMO per day. At the peak of the epidemic, the number of infected patients was 651% of designated beds, and the number of patients requiring intensive care was 6.0% of ICU beds, 19.1% of board-certified intensivists, and 106% of designated medical institutions in Japan. ConclusionsThe number of critically ill patients with COVID-19 continued to rise during the pandemic, exceeding the number of designated beds but not exceeding ICU capacity.