Spine Surgery and COVID-19

The novel coronavirus first emerged in Wuhan, People’s Republic of China, in December 2019. The subsequent unprecedented spread has since led to the global COVID-19 (the disease caused by the virus) pandemic, which was declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organization on January 30, 2020. As of April 1, 2020, a total of 754,948 cases have been reported globally, with 36,571 confirmed deaths. Singapore was one of the first other countries to be affected, and up until February 19, 2020, had the highest number of COVID-19 cases apart from the People’s Republic of China. Despite being the earliest other country affected, the initial containment strategies in Singapore have been largely successful in achieving a relatively low case-fatality rate (0.3%) compared with that of Italy (7.7%). Although we continue to adapt to the evolving situation, we believe that our experience in Singapore thus far may provide valuable insights into the challenges and strategies of orthopaedic and specifically spine surgery in the COVID-19 climate.