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. 2020 Apr;25(13):2000323.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.13.2000323.

Indications for healthcare surge capacity in European countries facing an exponential increase in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases, March 2020

Frederik Verelst  1 , Elise Kuylen  1   2 , Philippe Beutels  1   3
Affiliations

Indications for healthcare surge capacity in European countries facing an exponential increase in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases, March 2020

Frederik Verelst et al. Euro Surveill. 2020 Apr.

Abstract

European healthcare systems face extreme pressure from coronavirus disease (COVID-19). We relate country-specific accumulated COVID-19 deaths (intensity approach) and active COVID-19 cases (magnitude approach) to measures of healthcare system capacity: hospital beds, healthcare workers and healthcare expenditure. Modelled by the intensity approach with a composite measure for healthcare capacity, the countries experiencing the highest pressure on 25 March 2020 - relative to Italy on 11 March - were Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and France (www.covid-hcpressure.org).

Keywords: COVID-19; ICU; Italy; healthcare; surge capacity.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure
Figure
Relative pressure on the healthcare systems for 10 countries under highest pressure from COVID-19, by composite measures, 25 March 2020
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