Impact of lockdown on bed occupancy rate in a referral hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic in northeast Brazil

Abstract Coronaviruses are known to be responsible for infections in humans since the 1960s and have accounted for epidemics in recent human history. More recently, in 2019, a disease caused by a new coronavirus appeared in China, in the province of Wuhan, with a characteristic of greater infectivity, called COVID-19, which has caused a new world pandemic. Considering the need to contain the advance in the number of cases, based on the high rate of transmissibility, several countries have adopted extreme social distancing measures, including the so-called ‘lockdown’. Despite the socioecono...