The COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 had a significant impact on patients with muscular dystrophy. Severe shortages of supplies had a great impact on infection control and respiratory care. Refraining from medical visits, outgo, and outpatient rehabilitation led to physical decondition in those with mild disease. Restrictions on visiting and decreased home services usage induced increased mental stress and care burden in those with severe disease. At present, COVID-19 is not yet under control. However, treatment techniques for COVID-19 are gradually improving. The efficacy of the coronavirus vaccine in patients with muscular dystrophy is also being demonstrated. We must make efforts to recover ordinary daily life and medical care while taking appropriate infection control measures. Patients and health care providers must be consulted during this process and proceed with caution.

Due to the spread of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 （COVID-19） pandemic, travel restrictions in daily life began in Japan in April 2020, causing many patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy （DMD） to live with restricted behaviors. The purpose of this fact-finding survey was to examine the lifestyles of DMD patients and assess parent anxiety during the period of travel restrictions, as well as to understand the unique challenges in home life and the preparations required of physical therapists. A self-completed online questionnaire survey of the mothers of DMD patients revealed that whereas 67％ of the patients were able to live without visible anxiety, all respondents described anxiety about their child’s illness, mental state, motor function, and more, and expressed a desire for telerehabilitation. Our findings indicated a need for an online system to quickly evaluate the physical function of patients, provide real-time telerehabilitation services, and assuage the anxieties of their parents in cases of travel restictions due to disasters.

In February 2020, the spread of the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) began, and our hospital responded to this pandemic. Here we report on the following points.

1. How we dealt with COVID-19, which was an unknown disease, and how we prepared the system both in the outpatient department and the ward,

2. What we thought related to the importance of infection prevention, the need for correct knowledge and prompt information sharing, the difficulty of staff education and personnel securing, and coordination of the outpatient clinic environment on implement of outpatient infection prevention.

3. How we thought to secure a place to accept patients when they cannot be assisted and to provide guidance on infection control to caregivers in order to maintain the QOL of patients.