Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic on Cardiac Arrest and Emergency Care

During the COVID-19 pandemic both OHCA and IHCA have increased in incidence while outcomes among patients suffering cardiac arrest are worse. Direct effects of the COVID-19 illness as well as in-direct effects of the pandemic on patient's behavior and health care systems have contrib-uted to these changes. Understanding these po-tential factors offers the opportunity to improve future response and save lives. Fortunately, compared with the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, subsequent spikes in COVID-19 inci-dence seem to show an increase of lesser magni-tude of cardiac arrest despite an overall increase in COVID-19 infections. As health care systems have adapted, experience gained from the first wave may have led to better management of patients with COVID-19, allocation of resources, and eval-uation of non-COVID medical issues. Efforts at mass vaccination continue and will reduce the severity of disease leading to less severe compli-cations for those with COVID-19. The adverse impact of delaying non-COVID medical care has become readily apparent, prompting the science and medical community to widely release public campaigns to encourage patients to pursue med-ical care despite the ongoing pandemic.