Feral-Pierssens AL, Claret PG, Chouihed T. Eur J Emerg Med. 2020 May 4. doi: 10.1097/MEJ.0000000000000717
First lines
During the first wave of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, several countries experienced the same phenomenon before being struck: a sudden calm, silence, few patients, quiet halls and less ambulances. Then, when the wave of patients with severe COVID began to strike, these usual emergency patients were still nowhere to be seen. In Europe, as in North America, emergency departments noticed a major decrease of daily visits since the beginning of the outbreak and the implementation of public health measures. The spectacular decrease seems to be a uniform view shared on social media by emergency physicians all around Europe and even overseas in Quebec. While the population abided by the containment measures and hospitals closed most of their elective activities to cope with the anticipated surge in intensive care needs, emergency departments self-emptied.
Some patients may have opted for an alternative pathway for medical care while others may have forgone or postponed their urgent care. As Colineaux et al. [1] reported in a large sample of emergency department visits in France, 20% of adult patients were considered severely ill and required emergency care while 62% were intermediate cases who needed urgent care and technical resources. (…)
