Table 1.

Summary of potential effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on health systems, society, and personal attitude/knowledge that could influence antibiotic consumption (increase or decrease).

Target	Potential effect of COVID-19 on antibiotic consumption	Direction of impact	Refs.
Community	City/country lockdown, school closure, state of emergency	Decrease	(19, 31, 32)
	Reducing people-people contact could reduce the opportunity of infectious disease transmission in society.
Individual	The hesitation of visiting hospitals		(40)
	- People with mild symptoms avoid visiting hospitals	Decrease
	- Impatient might have more severe conditions	Increase
Individual	The general public's increased knowledge about infectious disease transmission and application of preventive measures such as hand washing, wearing masks, and maintaining social distancing.	Decrease	(41)
Hospitals	Interruption or reduction of antibiotic stewardship program owing to the extra workload for health professionals to react to the COVID-19 pandemic	Increase	(13, 14, 25)
Hospitals	Extra enhanced hand hygiene/environmental cleaning	Decrease	(42)