What changed in the Italian internal medicine and geriatric wards during the lockdown

Italy was the most affected European country in the first few weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a dramatic burden on sub-intensive and intensive care units. Among the several arrangements implemented to tackle this burden, hospital wards of almost all medical and surgical specialties were closed or converted into wards for sub-intensive care of COVID-19, and in many cases entire hospitals were converted into COVID hospitals. With this background, a total of 48 internal medicine or geriatric wards among the 93 adhering to the register REPOSI [[1]] answered an online questionnaire aimed to investigate the characteristics and activities of converted and non-converted wards in the crucial period of the first wave of the epidemic, 22 February-4 May 2020.