[Analysis of the evolution of patients attended in Spanish emergency departments during the first wave of the pandemic].

Background: To describe the number of visits (total and per COVID-19) attended by the Spanish hospital emergency departments (EDs) during the first wave of the pandemic (March-April 2020) compared to the same period in 2019, and to calculate the quantitative changes in healthcare activity and investigate the possible influence of hospital size and COVID-19 seroprevalence.

Method: Cross-sectional study that analyzes the number of visits to Spanish public EDs, reported through a survey of ED chiefs during the study periods. Changes in healthcare activity were described in each autonomous community and com-pared according to hospital size and the provincial impact of the pandemic.

Results: A total of 187 (66?%) of the 283 Spanish EDs participated in the study. The total number of patients attended de-creased to 49.2?% (
Conclusion: There was a very significant decrease in the number of ED visits during the first pandemic wave, although this decrease cannot be explained solely by the local incidence of the pandemic.