Scope and study population
The study was performed in the region of “La Garrotxa” (Girona, Spain). This is a rural region that belongs to the province of Girona (Spain) and has a total population of 57,590 inhabitants with remarkable aging (20% of the inhabitants have an age equal to or more than 65 years of age). The HOCG regional hospital has 136 hospital beds (64 for acute patient care and 72 for chronic care). Under normal conditions, no ICU beds are available, but exceptionally, operating room resuscitation was enabled to attend to a maximum of 4 critical patients. During the first wave of the pandemic 16% of our healthcare workers were affected by the disease8.