Each year, June 1-7 is designated as CPR and AED Awareness Week. This year, the significance is especially striking. As most Americans continue to spend more of their time at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, the odds of cardiac arrests in a home setting are likely to increase, according to the American Heart Association.

Each year, more than 350,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur in the United States, with about 70 percent happening in homes. Fortunately, Hands-Only CPR can be performed by family or household members. Even in the time of COVID-19, household members may be the lowest-risk providers of CPR at home because they have likely already been exposed, if in fact the cardiac-arrest victim has COVID-19.