Raphael Boesche Guimarães et al. Breno Falcão Ricardo Alves Costa Marcelo Antônio Cartaxo Queiroga Lopes … Roberto Vieira Botelho Ricardo Petraco Rogério Sarmento-Leite
Introduction
COVID-19, initially described at the end of 2019 in China, may present as atypical pneumonia and severe respiratory failure. Classified in February 2020 as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), COVID-19 has had major clinical, social, political and economic implications. Society as a whole has had to adapt to a new reality, forcing hospitals to rewrite their routine practices and clinical pathways. Specific measures have had to be put in place to prevent hospital transmission of the infection. Also, dedicated COVID units have been set up and infection control protocols implemented. Finally, additional human, material and financial resources have been allocated in order to provide patients with the best possible care, without compromising the safety of healthcare workers.
Social isolation as a way of containing the spread of the disease may have helped, in some places, to “flatten the curve”, preventing the collapse of healthcare systems. However, the duration of the pandemic, as well as the precise risk of transmission are still largely unknown.
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