Coronavirus: Survival rate of intensive care patients improving, data suggests

Data shows less than 12 per cent admitted to critical care have died since September

Rates of hospitalisation have risen around the country (Rueters)

As hospitalisations and intensive care admissions surge around the country, new figures indicate coronavirus patients in critical care have a better survival rate now than when the pandemic first began.

The latest report from The Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC) into critical care for England, Wales and Northern Ireland looks at patients admitted to intensive care up until 31 August and those admitted from 1 September.

The data shows that on average, 39 per cent of critical care coronavirus patients died up until the end of August while less than 12 per cent have died since September.

The proportion of patients who died after being admitted to critical care fell by almost a quarter from the peak and as much as half in hospitals overall.

However, the Dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, Dr Alison Pittard, told the BBC that the difference may be attributed to an insufficient amount of time having passed which impedes an accurate and longterm patient assessment, as some remain in hospital.

Meanwhile, scientific advisors continue to warn that the next few weeks are critical for regulating hospital admissions.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that the surge in rates of infection and hospitalisations have played pivotal roles in the government implementing a new tiered system of coronavirus restrictions.

Speaking during Friday’s coronavirus briefing, Mr Johnson said: “These decisions were necessary because of the rate of increase not just of infections but also in hospitalisations and admissions to intensive care.”

He added: “Without action, there is no doubt that our NHS would soon be struggling to treat the sheer number of people seriously ill with Covid.”

During the briefing, chief scientific advisor Patrick Vallance said that hospitalisations and intensive care admissions have risen to their highest level in months.

Mr Vallance said that the increase in cases among the over-60 age group was rising at different rates around the UK, with the highest concentration in the North West and North East.

Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics estimate around 27,900 new coronavirus cases a day in England while the highest tier of restrictions continue to be introduced in places around the UK.