The COVID-19 pandemic has posed a serious question over preparedness to deal with mass fatality. The current trend shows that there would be more bodies than the capacity and resources to handle them. The international agencies have alerted governments that the number of deaths may overwhelm the local capacity to handle dead bodies properly. Mass fatality management and planning are important to respecting the dignity of the deceased and surviving family. Inadequate capacity to deal with dead bodies may affect the psychological well-being of survivors which may result in distress to families and community.

Delivering adequate health care in the setting of the ongoing pandemic is challenging. Due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the Tokyo Metropolitan government has been forced to expand their acute health-care capacity corresponding to infectious diseases within a short period. Responding to this situation, health emergency and disaster experts of the Tokyo Disaster Medical Assistance Team took the initiative in creating a brief education course. We established the course for expanding infectious disease care capacity by a dedicated hands-on lecture for health professionals who are unfamiliar with infectious disease care in ordinary circumstances. Our lecture included the typical course of COVID-19, use of personal protective equipment, environmental sterilization, medical-ward zoning, and safe caregiving. Hospitals that received customized lectures reported by means of a questionnaire that the lectures were well suited to their needs. Currently, the health-care system in Tokyo has increased its capacity to meet the demand and has not been affected by COVID-19. Our experience shows that health emergency and disaster experts can assist hospitals in crisis by providing educational materials.

The purpose of this research was to determine biosecurity measures at the dental office after the appearance of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). A search was conducted in the main databases of the scientific literature using the words “COVID-19, coronavirus, SARS-Cov2, biosecurity, disinfection and dentistry.” We analyzed biosecurity and disinfection standards at the dental office and dental health personnel to date, and their adaptation to the needs and way of working of each. As a result, according to the information collected the following procedure was identified: a telephone appointment must be made and a questionnaire should be given before dental care; at arrival to the appointment, the temperature of the patient should be taken and proper cleaning and disinfection of the waiting room should be maintained. Panoramic radiography and CBCT are the auxiliary methods of choice. Absolute isolation and atraumatic restorative therapy techniques are a good alternative to decrease fluid exposure. The removal of protective clothing and accessories must follow a specific order and washing hands before and after is essential. In conclusion, the efficient biosecurity for dentists and patients in all dental care processes before, during, and immediately after the appointment reduces the risk of COVID-19 infection and allows healthy dental care environments.

A 16-year-old girl with history of treated congenital mitral valve disease and signs of respiratory infection was admitted to our paediatric cardiology department. She was tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Despite her severe pre-existing cardiac conditions with pulmonary hypertension, atrial arrhythmias and mitral valve stenosis, the infection did not lead to any cardiac or pulmonary deterioration. In adults, cardiac co-morbidities are known risk factors for a severe course of coronavirus disease 2019 infections. This case illustrates that in children even severe cardiac disease is not necessarily associated with a severe course of coronavirus disease 2019.

An outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread worldwide. In this major outbreak, women are a special group, especially pregnant patients. Many problems faced by clinicians are still unclear and need to be solved. As the largest obstetrics and gynecology hospital in North China, here we summarize the diagnosis and treatment process and key points of obstetrics and gynecology patients in our hospital during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, hoping to provide available information to inform care of obstetrics and gynecology patients.

We observed bacterial or fungal coinfections in COVID-19 patients admitted between March 1 and April 18, 2020 (152 of 4,267, 3.6%). Among these patients, mortality was 57%; 74% were intubated; 51% with bacteremia had central venous catheters. Time to culture positivity was 6–7 days, and 79% had received prior antibiotics. Metallo-β-lactamase–producing E. cloacae coinfections occurred in 5 patients.

In December 2019, a novel human-infecting coronavirus, named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was recognised to cause a pneumonia epidemic outbreak with different degrees of severity in Wuhan, Hubei Province in China. Since then, this epidemic has spread worldwide; in Europe, Italy has been involved. Effective preventive and therapeutic strategies are absolutely required to block this serious public health concern. Unfortunately, few studies about SARS-CoV-2 concerning its immunopathogenesis and treatment are available. On the basis of the assumption that the SARS-CoV-2 is genetically related to SARS-CoV (about 82 % of genome homology) and that its characteristics, like the modality of transmission or the type of the immune response it may stimulate, are still poorly known, a literature search was performed to identify the reports assessing these elements in patients with SARS-CoV-induced infection. Therefore, we have analysed: (1) the structure of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV; (2) the clinical signs and symptoms and pathogenic mechanisms observed during the development of acute respiratory syndrome and the cytokine release syndrome; (3) the modification of the cell microRNome and of the immune response in patients with SARS infection; and (4) the possible role of some fat-soluble compounds (such as vitamins A, D and E) in modulating directly or indirectly the replication ability of SARS-CoV-2 and host immune response.

In a single-center review of antibiotic prescribing in COVID-19 patients, 10% of patients received antimicrobials, and inpatients encounters had the highest rate and spectrum of prescribing. Prescribing rate, spectrum, and duration appeared to increase with disease severity in inpatients. Antimicrobial prescribing in patients managed in ambulatory encounters was less common.