Einstein | 2021
Emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic: the numbers and lessons that will stay with us forever
Abstract
In Brazil, the first patient with coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) was diagnosed on February 26, 2020. He lived in the city of São Paulo (SP), Brazil, and had recently returned from a trip to Europe. Over the next couple of weeks, most of the new cases of COVID-19 had an identifiable epidemiological risk factor – either having travelled abroad or been in contact with a patient known to have severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. However, as initial containment measures failed, the epidemic that had started in the high-income brackets quickly spread to the whole community, hitting people of low-income brackets in a particularly hard manner.(1) As of August 31st, 2020, a total of 257,778 cases had been confirmed in the city of São Paulo, and 11,400 deaths had been attributed to COVID-19 (https://www.seade.gov.br/coronavirus/). In this context, the public and private health systems in São Paulo were forced to make adjustments, often coming together to allow rational and efficient use of limited medical resources. Several public health measures put into place in response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, including city-level quarantine and mandatory widespread use of cloth or surgical masks later on. However, establishing temporary field hospital facilities and appointing selected public hospitals as reference centers for treatment of COVID-19 were the cornerstone of the public healthcare policy. Hospital Municipal Dr. Moysés Deustch (M’Boi Mirim – HMMD) was one of these hospitals. Managed by a large philanthropic medical organization, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein (HIAE), the HMMD is a unique community hospital in São Paulo, located in one of the largest underdeveloped suburbs in the city and responsible for the care of over one million people. It also serves as a teaching hospital for medical students and several residency programs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the mission of the organization and its preparedness plan led the hospital to become a major center COVID-19 center in the country. Since the beginning of the pandemic, this originally 210-bed hospital has received 3,237 patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. When analyzing the first 616 patients admitted, it was observed our epidemiology How to cite this article: Degani-Costa LH, Rolla F, Oliveira RA, Schettino GP, Cordiolli RL, Hohmann FB, et al. Emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic: the numbers and lessons that will stay with us forever. einstein (São Paulo). 2021;19:eED6207.