Impact of lockdown on bed occupancy rate in a referral hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic in northeast Brazil

Abstract

Coronaviruses are known to be responsible for infections in humans since the 1960s and have accounted for epidemics in recent human history. More recently, in 2019, a disease caused by a new coronavirus appeared in China, in the province of Wuhan, with a characteristic of greater infectivity, called COVID-19, which has caused a new world pandemic. Considering the need to contain the advance in the number of cases, based on the high rate of transmissibility, several countries have adopted extreme social distancing measures, including the so-called 'lockdown'. Despite the socioeconomic side effects, the aforementioned measure reduced the progression of the pandemic in countries that adopted it. In Brazil, the state of Ceará was one of the first epicenters of the disease in the country and the state capital city of Fortaleza, on May 8, implemented the lockdown measure to contain the increase in the number of cases. It was then observed, in a tertiary hospital, which is a referral for COVID-19 cases, a decrease in the daily occupancy rate of beds reserved for the pandemic after the lockdown onset, evidencing that this measure leads to a sustainable reduction in bed occupation rates, thus preventing the collapse and overload in health services.

Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus; Health services; Lockdown.

Fig. 1

Bed Occupancy rate for patients with COVID-19 in a referral tertiary hospital during the pandemic in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. Source: Hospital de Messejana, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. *100% means the total hospital capacity (beds), which was increased due to COVID-19 pandemics; it reached a peak of 130% on 11th May, and a tendency to decrease was detected after the lockdown period, mainly from 21st May on, when the bed occupancy is near 100% of the hospital capacity.