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Surgery, social responsibility, and the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on March 11, 2020.1 A state of national emergency was announced for New Zealand on March 25, 2020 and continues currently.2 As of May 30, 2020, COVID-19 has been confirmed in 213 countries with over 6,000,000 cases and 350,000 deaths worldwide.3 It has overwhelmed health care systems in many major world cities, leading to non-urgent elective surgery being suspended due to lack of beds or staff.4 During Level 4 lockdown in New Zealand all non-urgent elective surgery, endoscopy, and outpatient clinics were cancelled to protect our resources and patients from potentially being exposed in a high-risk environment; emergency and urgent surgery continued, and urgent outpatient consultations were conducted remotely.