Impact of COVID on cardiovascular practice in India
An online study was conducted by our team among the cardiac surgeons practising in India (5). It was noted that 27% of the surgeons did not operate during the Lockdown and nearly 90% of the surgeons stopped elective surgery prior to March 31st, 2020. Just over 1/5th of the surgeons (22.2%) continued to perform elective surgeries during the period of lockdown. Nearly 90% of the surgeon agreed that there is a drop in more than 50% of the surgical volume during the period of lockdown. A few surgeons (12.1%) agreed that their “traditional” post-surgery intensive care unit was transformed into a COVID-unit. This was more common in the public sector.