Management of healthcare areas for the prevention of COVID-19 emergency in an Italian teaching hospital (Pisa, Tuscany): A hospital renovation plan

The current outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), epi-centred in Wuhan (China) from December 2019, has spread to over 160 worldwide countries in less than three months. In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) defined this outbreak as a pandemic emergency, which need strategies aimed to manage the infectious risk implementing social distancing measures and borders closure In Italy a cluster of cases started in Lombardy on February 21st . From the beginning of March, the virus had spread to all Italian Regions. From February 21st to March 24 st a total of 69176 cases have been confirmed with 6820 deaths. Tuscany Region has registered 2699 cases with 918 hospitalized patient. 244/918 (27%) of patient present respiratory failure and require specific cares in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) (3). Considering the limited bed number in ICU, we describe the technical emergency measures adopted by a 1081-bed teaching hospital located in Pisa district (Tuscany, Italy), aimed to prevent the hospital overcrowding by COVID-19 patients.