Economical Zoning Strategy and its Effectiveness for Patients with COVID-19

Abstract

In Japan, patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) need to be hospitalized. We admitted patients with mild-to-severe disease as well as asymptomatic carriers at a designated hospital; however, we were also aware of the potential issues of shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) and nosocomial infections among healthcare workers. Therefore, we opened an entire ward as a living place for asymptomatic to mildly symptomatic patients, thereby lessening the number of donning and doffing of PPE and minimizing the workload and risk of healthcare workers of being infected in the hospital. For those with severe disease, we considered the corridor of intensive care unit as the so called "orange zone" to use PPE to minimize the workload and risk. Here, we have described the details of our strategy.