Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest during the Covid-19 Outbreak in Italy

Despite the risk of rapid respiratory failure and cardiac complications due to Covid-19, it is unclear whether there is an association between Covid-19 and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The Lombardy region of Italy was among the first areas to have an outbreak of Covid-19 outside China, and the first case there was diagnosed on February 20, 2020, in Lodi Province. Using the Lombardia Cardiac Arrest Registry (Lombardia CARe), we compared out-of-hospital cardiac arrests that occurred in the provinces of Lodi, Cremona, Pavia, and Mantua during the first 40 days of the Covid-19 outbreak (February 21 through March 31, 2020) with those that occurred during the same period in 2019 (February 21 through April 1, to account for the leap year).