How the COVID-19 Epidemic Affected Prehospital Emergency Medical Services in Tehran, Iran

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has substantially impacted the healthcare delivery system in Tehran, Iran. The country's first confirmed positive test for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) was on February 18, 2020. Since then, the number of cases has steadily incr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The western journal of emergency medicine 2020-09, Vol.21 (6), p.110-116
Main Authors: Saberian, Peyman, Conovaloff, Joseph L, Vahidi, Elnaz, Hasani-Sharamin, Parisa, Kolivand, Pir-Hossein
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
Emergency Medical Services - statistics & numerical data
Emergency services
Epidemics
Humans
International Medicine
Iran - epidemiology
SARS-CoV-2
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
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Summary:Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has substantially impacted the healthcare delivery system in Tehran, Iran. The country's first confirmed positive test for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) was on February 18, 2020. Since then, the number of cases has steadily increased in Iran and worldwide. Emergency medical services (EMS) quickly adapted its operations to accommodate a greater number of patients, and it worked to decrease the risk of COVID-19 spread among EMS personnel, given the disease's high transmissibility. We evaluated the chief complaint as well as the pattern and number of EMS calls and dispatches during the 28-day intervals before and after the February 18, 2020, COVID-19 outbreak in Iran. EMS calls increased from 355,241 in the pre-outbreak period to 1,589,346 in the post-outbreak period, a 347% increase (p
ISSN:1936-900X
1936-9018
1936-9018
DOI:10.5811/westjem.2020.8.48679