PulsePoint Resources During COVID-19

Spike in Cardiac Deaths Related to COVID-19

The New England Journal of Medicine reported a 58 percent increase in the number of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs) in the first 40 days of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, as compared with the same period last year. Many U.S.-based hot spots have reported a similar increase in OHCA as the pandemic spreads. With social distancing and a reduction in public space use during the pandemic, along with hospital avoidance, more cardiac arrests are occurring at home, and survival rates are lower due to delays in CPR and AED use.Bystander CPR was down more than 15 percent during this…