Is COVID-19 affecting the incidence of hip fractures?

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic is caused by the Coronavirus-2 of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV-2). It was first described in December 2019 in the city of Wuhan, capital of the central chinese province of Hubei, when a group of people with unknown pneumonia were reported. In Europe, the first case of Covid-19 was described in France on January 25th 2020. On February 21, a large outbreak was reported in Italy, mainly in the north, near Milan. The cases grew rapidly and the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized it as a global pandemic on March 11th, 2020. To prevent the spread of the virus, many governments of different nations have imposed travel restrictions, quarantines, confinements, cancellation of events and closure of non-essential establishments. In Spain the government decreed the state of alarm on March 14th, which limited the free movement of citizens with little exceptions (such as basic services). In practice, this involved a period of confinement that lasted for weeks