Background: Road traffic injury (RTI) is a devastating burden for Georgia. Annually, about 500 people are killed and 8000 are injured. The COVID-19 Pandemic lockdowns restricted human and traffic mobility impacting the patterns of RTI. We aimed to study the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on epidemiological characters, patterns, and outcomes of hospitalized RTI patients in Georgia.

Methods: The retrospective comparative analysis of the database of the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health of Georgia for 2019 and 2020, which includes all hospital admissions due to road traffic crashes (RTC) was completed. Cases were included based on the following ICD-10-AM codes: S00–T98 & V01 to V89. Results: A significant decrease of 21% was observed in the number of patients admitted to hospitals by road traffic accidents during the COVID-19 pandemic period compared to the pre-pandemic period (p

National Center for Diseases Control and Public Health - Tbilisi - Georgia - Georgia