The effect of COVID-19 on essential surgical admissions in South Africa: A retrospective observational analysis of admissions before and during lockdown at a tertiary healthcare complex.

Background: With COVID-19 having spread across the globe, it has become standard to implement infection control strategies (colloquially known as lockdown) with the intention of reducing the magnitude and delaying the peak of the epidemiological curve. Personal infection mitigation strategies coupled with lockdown have caused a change in healthcare-seeking behaviour, with individuals not attending to their ill health as they previously did.

Objectives: To determine whether admissions for urgent and emergency surgical pathologies have declined during the COVID-19 lockdown period, and the magnitude of the decline.