The impact of SARS-CoV-2 in Greece

OBJECTIVE To quantitatively and qualitatively explore the emergency calls received by the National Center of Emergency Care (Greek acronym: EKAB) in the region of Attica for the period 2019-2021. METHOD Retrospective descriptive analysis of the database recording calls to EKAB for the peri-pandemic and pandemic period. RESULTS The average number of calls per year was 350,000, two thirds of which resulted in the further use of emergency services. In the first year of the pandemic crisis (2020), calls decreased by 14% compared to 2019. During the first lockdown calls decreased by 33%. Considerable reductions were observed for calls related to trauma and motor vehicle accidents (21%) and cardiovascular events (22%). The proportion of calls resulting in refusals of transportation to hospital increased. Moreover, calls for "psychiatric/suicide attempts" increased in 2020. CONCLUSIONS This was the first study using realworld data to explore the response of EKAB to the demand for emergency medical services (EMS) before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic crisis. The study shed light to the composition of demand and the changes induced by SARS-CoV-2. The findings were consistent with the reported experience of other emergency services across the world.