Impacts of the Coronavirus 2019 Pandemic on Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Volume and Diagnosis of Gastric and Colorectal Cancers: A Population-Based Study

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a major disruption to our health care system. In response to the service demand surge and shortage of personal protective equipment, multiple professional societies have issued recommendations to defer elective endoscopic procedures except time-sensitive and emergency procedures.1-3 As yet, the real-life impact of this pragmatic service reduction is unknown. Here, we report the short-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the volume of gastrointestinal endoscopy and new diagnoses of gastric and colon cancers in Hong Kong and model the changes in cancer staging.