The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused immense adverse health consequences around the world. The pandemic’s potential impact upon out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) resuscitation and related training are substantial. Given the public health implications of OHCA, resuscitation in the COVID-19 era must strive to correctly balance the best practices achieved by the links in the chain of survival with the added risks of COVID-19. Importantly, changes that are implemented to address COVID-specific risks are likely to affect resuscitation care for all patients with OHCA given the challenges of accurate and timely assessment of COVID infection in the prehospital setting. Preliminary reports indicate that OHCA care and outcome have been adversely impacted in communities with low and high COVID-19 prevalence. Some of the mortality toll may be attributable directly to COVID-19 infection among patients with OHCA. However, an important contributor appears to be adverse impacts of the pandemic on circumstances and care for OHCA patients without COVID-19, highlighting the far-reaching challenges to resuscitation as systems and society navigate the pandemic
