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Background: Changes in patient care occurred as a result of the SARS-CoV‑2 virus, and both intrahospital and prehospital care were profoundly affected. Public shutdowns during lockdown periods were intended to prevent overstretching existing resources, resulting in noticeable changes in medical care for both elective treatments and emergency medicine. This study now considered the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on air ambulance services at a central air ambulance site in 2020 compared to the previous 2 years., Methods: A retrospective evaluation of all missions of the rescue helicopter Christoph 9 in the first COVID-19 pandemic year 2020 in comparison to the years 2018 and 2019 was performed. The mission logs were evaluated for the analysis., Results: There was a 20% reduction in the number of missions in 2020, with primarily internal medicine missions affected. Despite the lockdown periods and reduction in social life, the proportion of trauma deployments remained nearly the same. As expected, the proportion of occupational accidents decreased, and recreational activities resulted in accidents more frequently. Injury or illness severity showed no significant differences. In terms of internal diseases, there was a reduction in alerts for acute coronary syndrome and respiratory emergencies. The proportion of suicide-related injuries remained constant over the years., Conclusion: During the COVID-19 study period, a decrease in the number of deployments and aborted deployments was observed. However, no significant differences in deployment and injury characteristics were observed for trauma-related deployments. These results highlight the importance of air ambulance services to ensure patient care even during pandemic periods., (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature 2023.)

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has also significantly burdened and challenged the German emergency medical services (EMS). In this regard, the personal protective equipment (PPE) and rules like wear a mask, stay 6 feet away from others, avoid crowds and poorly ventilated spaces, wash your hands often (called AHA‑L rules in Germany) play an important role in reducing the spread of COVID-19 infections., Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the acceptance and compliance of PPE and protective measures among rescue service personnel in Germany during pandemic periods., Method: More than 270 medical directors of EMS were contacted. They were asked to forward a web-based online survey to the rescue stations. Participants were asked about acceptance and compliance in everyday life, in the rescue station, during missions without COVID-19, during missions with COVID-19., Results: There were n  = 1295 participants. Overall acceptance and compliance of PPE and protective measures is high. The lowest acceptance and compliance is found in the questions acceptance (mean = 4.16; ±1.01) and compliance (mean = 4.26; ±0.89) in the rescue station., Conclusion: We recommend targeted training regarding PPE in pandemics and the provision of appropriate premises for conflict-free compliance with AHA‑L rules., (© Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature 2021.)