Luiz Augusto Lisboa et al. Omar Asdrúbal Vilca Mejia Elisandra Trevisan Arita Gustavo Pampolha Guerreiro … Lucas Molinari Veloso da Silveira Carlos Manuel de Almeida Brandão Ricardo Ribeiro Dias Luís Roberto Palma Dallan Leonardo Miana Luiz F. Caneo Marcelo Biscegli Jatene Luís Alberto Oliveira Dallan Fabio Biscegli Jatene
Introduction
The novel viral respiratory infection caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), initially known as 2019-nCoV, emerged in late December 2019 in Wuhan, China and quickly spread throughout Asia, Europe, and USA, characterizing the situation as a pandemic. In May 2020, the World Health Organization declared Brazil a new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.
With the alarming levels of spread and severity of COVID-19, major disruptions in routine hospital services have occurred, as hospitals adjust in order to increase the capacity to care for patients with SARS-CoV-2. In this context, elective surgeries were postponed in order to optimize health resources and staffing issues and to protect patients from in-hospital viral transmission.
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