Introduction:

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a paradigm shift in healthcare.

Objective:

To evaluate the utility of a strategy to comprehensively address the pandemic in a health area that covers 42,000 people.

Method:

Between March 10 and May 15, 2020, the COVID Unit was created in the corresponding regional hospital, and an independent circuit was established for the diagnosis and management of patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19; social health centers were monitored with PCR testing.

Results:

Eighteen COVID-19-positive patients (age 72.9 ± 13.2 years) were admitted, out of which 66% were males. All these patients had pneumonia and 67% had respiratory distress syndrome; no one required mechanical ventilation. Mean hospital stay was 9.4 ± 5.3 days, and mortality, 11%. PCR tests were applied to all hospital residents (n = 827) and workers (n = 519), 1,044 phone calls were made and 36 hospital admissions were avoided. Only 50 patients required close follow-up, out of which four (0.48%) were positive for COVID-19.

Conclusion:

Clinical monitoring at the hospital and social health centers showed that patient profile was like that documented in the literature and that the incidence of COVID-19 was low in social health centers.