Evolution of emergency medical calls during a pandemic – An emergency medical service during the COVID-19 outbreak

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are expected to be affected by a pandemic outbreak. However, the available data about trends and extents of these effects is limited. We analyzed numbers of ambulance calls for all 136 diagnosis codes used by Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel's national EMS during 121 days between January 01 and April 30, 2020. There was an increase in calls for COVID-19 symptoms (cough, fever, throat pain). This trend followed the same shape as the curve for confirmed COVID-19 patients. Trends were found to increase for calls not followed by transport to the hospital as well as in calls for mental or psychiatric causes. Simultaneously, there was a decrease in calls for cardiovascular issues, pneumonia, and all injuries. Understanding these correlations may allow better preparedness of the EMS and a better response towards the public needs in the period of an epidemic or a pandemic.