Abstract
Background and objectives: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is overwhelming Japan’s intensive care capacity. This study aimed to determine the number of patients with COVID-19 who required intensive care and to compare the numbers with Japan’s intensive care capacity. Materials and Methods: Publicly available datasets were used to obtain the number of confirmed patients with COVID-19 undergoing mechanical ventilation and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) between 15 February and 19 July 2020 to determine and compare intensive care unit (ICU) and attending bed needs for patients with COVID-19, and to estimate peak ICU demands in Japan. Results: During the epidemic peak in late April, 11,443 patients (1.03/10,000 adults) had been infected, 373 patients (0.034/10,000 adults) were in ICU, 312 patients (0.028/10,000 adults) were receiving mechanical ventilation, and 62 patients (0.0056/10,000 adults) were under ECMO per day. At the peak of the epidemic, the number of infected patients was 651% of designated beds, and the number of patients requiring intensive care was 6.0% of ICU beds, 19.1% of board-certified intensivists, and 106% of designated medical institutions in Japan. Conclusions: The number of critically ill patients with COVID-19 continued to rise during the pandemic, exceeding the number of designated beds but not exceeding ICU capacity.
Highlights
A novel coronavirus, namely, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was first reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019, and the number of newly reported cases has continued to increase globally
More than 570 facilities across Japan currently participate in this CRoss Icu Searchable Information System (CRISIS), centering on facilities certified by the Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine (JSICM) and facilities designated by the Japanese Society of Emergency Medicine, with a total of 5500 intensive care unit (ICU) beds, covering 80% of the total ICU beds in Japan [26]
Results epidemic in late April 2020, 11,443 patients (1.03 per 10,000 adults) had been infected with SARS-CoV-2 and, of these, 373 patients (0.034 per 10,000 adults) were admitted to ICU, 312 patients
Summary
A novel coronavirus, namely, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was first reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019, and the number of newly reported cases has continued to increase globally. On 7 April 2020, Japan declared a state of emergency in seven major central cities, which was extended to all 47 prefectures on 16 April 2020 [2]. Approximately 70–80% of patients with COVID-19 have mild to moderate symptoms and recover, 5–20% of patients develop severe respiratory failure and may require admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) [3,4,5]. This study aimed to determine the number of patients with COVID-19 who required intensive care and to compare the numbers with Japan’s intensive care capacity
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