Pediatric hospital demand in COVID-19 times in Perú

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic in Perú is causing strain on critical care and hospital resources across the nation. As the infection progress into the population we expect a surge in severe cases and on the intensive care unit (ICU) demand. As the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak approaches, the capacity for hospital and ICU beds will probably be exceeded. Despite the low severity of COVID-19 in children, we expect that the projected number of pediatric cases could overwhelm the available pediatric capacity as the outbreak progress in our country. Under a 25% cumulative infection rate scenario, there would be approximately 891 critically ill children requiring ICU admission. We propose several strategies to handle the concerns about shortfalls in our ability to provide pediatric ventilation and critical care support during the epidemic in Perú.