Paediatric Emergencies During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The state of alarm decreed by the Spanish Government, due to the Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic, has demanded the lockdown of children and has conditioned a new organization of the Emergency Departments (ED). A pre-triage station and 2 independent circuits were established: suspected COVID-19 and not suspected COVID-19. The ED visits decreased 84,5% from pre-alarm with no increase in the level of urgencies. During the alarm state, 40.97% of the children were classified as suspected COVID-19. Fever and respiratory symptoms, used as discriminators, generated 2 groups of patients with different characteristics. Although the interruption of sports activities and isolation of children at home contributed to the decrease in emergencies, it was also probably conditioned by adults’ fear of contagion, who avoided going to the hospital in situations that would never have really required ED and resolved themselves in primary care or spontaneously.