Ishikawa Yohei, Hifumi Toru, Otani Norio, Miyamichi Ryosuke, Urashima Mitsuyoshi, Takeda Satoshi, Ishimatsu Shinichi
Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, St. Luke's International Hospital, 9-1 Akashi-cho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-8560 Japan.
Division of Molecular Epidemiology, Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
SN Compr Clin Med. 2020;2(11):2158-2160. doi: 10.1007/s42399-020-00583-8. Epub 2020 Oct 12.
The first coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) patients were reported in China on December 12, 2019, and the first COVID-19 patients were reported in Japan on January 16, 2020. Here, we investigated the number of patients in Emergency Departments (EDs) in three major hospitals in Tokyo, and also briefly discussed about the relationship between the number of patients in EDs and health system's capacity. We compared the number of patients in 2020 to the average number of patients from 2016 to 2019. Numbers were compared in three periods: before the first COVID-19 patient was reported in Japan (January 1 to January 16), after the government encouraged social distancing (February 26 to March 10), and the interval between them (January 17 to February 25). The average number of daily patients in 2020 ( = 122) decreased by 17% compared to the average number of patients from 2016 to 2019 ( = 144) (Mann-Whitney test, < 0.001). This phenomenon might be due to a fear of contracting the virus at hospitals, companies having their employees work remotely and postponing events, people following the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's instructional guidelines for going to the hospital, prevention awareness becoming widespread, and a decreased number of tourists. The number of patients visiting Emergency Departments in Tokyo was decreased and the number of COVID-19 infections has remained within the health system's capacity during the early phase of COVID-19 first wave.
2019年12月12日中国报告了首例2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）患者，2020年1月16日日本报告了首例COVID-19患者。在此，我们调查了东京三家主要医院急诊科的患者数量，并简要讨论了急诊科患者数量与卫生系统能力之间的关系。我们将2020年的患者数量与2016年至2019年的患者平均数量进行了比较。在三个时间段进行了数量比较：在日本报告首例COVID-19患者之前（1月1日至1月16日）、政府鼓励社交距离之后（2月26日至3月10日）以及这两个时间段之间的间隔（1月17日至2月25日）。2020年每日患者平均数量（=122）与2016年至2019年患者平均数量（=144）相比减少了17%（曼-惠特尼检验，<0.001）。这种现象可能是由于担心在医院感染病毒、公司让员工远程工作并推迟活动、人们遵循日本厚生劳动省的就医指导方针、预防意识普及以及游客数量减少。在COVID-19第一波疫情的早期阶段，东京急诊科的就诊患者数量减少，COVID-19感染数量一直保持在卫生系统的能力范围内。
