Effects of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic on the Number of Hospitalizations for Myocardial Infarction: Regional Differences. Population Analysis of 7 Million People

1039 Medical Services (Państwowe Ratownictwo Me‐ dyczne [PRM]) as well as on administrative and epidemiological data. Data from the NFZ were collected using the SILCARD (Silesian Cardiovascular Database) methodology, which was published elsewhere.7 In brief, the database is based on the payer’s data according to ICD‐9 (procedures) and ICD‐10 (di‐ agnosis) classification and includes all patients hospitalized at the departments of cardiology, cardiac surgery, and vascular surgery as well as patients with diagnosed cardiovascular diseas‐ es hospitalized at the departments of internal diseases and intensive care units across Silesia Province. The present analysis includes all pa‐ tients hospitalized for acute myocardial infarc‐ tion (I21 and I22) between March 9 and April 16, 2019 and 2020 (eleventh to seventeenth cal‐ endar week of the year). Data from the Opole and Podlasie Provinces were developed using the same methodology. Data from the PRM were analyzed with regard to the records of dispatch orders and records of medical rescue operations be‐ tween March 3 and April 26, 2019 and 2020. Introduction The coronavirus 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic has affected the health‐ care system across the world. In Poland, the first case of COVID‐19 was announced on March 4, 2020, and lockdown was introduced on March 12, 2020. Data from different coun‐ tries across the continents reveal a significant decrease in the number of patients hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction (AMI).1‐5 The ob‐ served reduction in the hospitalization num‐ ber reaches 40% to 50% and is independent of the epidemic intensity.5 Analysis of invasive pro‐ cedures performed in selected interventional cardiology centers in Poland revealed a decrease in the number of patients treated for both ST‐ ‐segment elevation myocardial infarction (STE‐ MI) and non–ST ‐segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) in the first weeks of the ep‐ idemic (before April 14, 2020).6 So far, there have been no population data or data from selected regions of Poland that would confirm this trend.