As expected, the investigators found a significant (48%) decline in surgeries during the seven weeks after mid-March 2020, … By July 2020, U.S. surgery rates began to return to, or even surpass, 2019 levels. By the end of 2020, the overall total volume of surgeries was only 10% below the 2019 volume, according to the study published online Dec. 8 in JAMA Network Open.