Abstract
In order to assess the effects of COVID-19, all health care workers must be aware of the symptoms and course of the disease. Experience and studies from the regions most affected in China and Italy give preliminary information on issues such as the course of infection and the risk to hospital staff. This suggests that surgically treated COVID-19 patients have a higher risk compared to noninfected patients. The surgical staff also appear to be at increased risk of infection. Furthermore, to prevent the health care system from collapse, resources must be saved elsewhere. Elective operations must be reduced. In order to develop criteria for which operations can be performed, the pandemic is divided into different phases. These are based on the development of the pandemic curve. Various aspects should be taken into account when deciding whether an operation is feasible (stage of pandemic, dysfunction in case of omission, conflict with resources for COVID-19 treatment, alternative: outpatient surgery). Thus, the recommendations for carrying out operations should always be adapted to the current, regional and epidemiological situation of the hospital. For this purpose, it is necessary to form a local committee in the hospital to carry out this assessment on a daily basis. General surgical bans do not seem to make medical sense.