More than half of Covid-19 patients treated primarily for something else

More than half all Covid patients in hospital trusts in England are being treated primarily for something else, new figures show.

Of the 13,023 patients reported as having the virus on January 25, 6,767 (52%) were not being treated principally for Covid-19.

This is the highest proportion since these figures were first published in June 2021, and is up from 26% at the start of December.

In London the figure was as high as 64% of patients, while in eastern England it was 62%.

Both the Midlands (54%) and south-west England (51%) were also above 50%.

But other regions in England had slightly lower levels, with north-east England and Yorkshire at 46%, south-east England 45% and north-west England 43%.

All hospital patients who have tested positive for Covid-19 need to be treated separately from those who do not have the virus, regardless of whether they are in hospital primarily for Covid or not.

But the growing proportion of patients who are in hospital “with” Covid-19 rather than “for” Covid-19 is another sign that the current wave of the virus has not led to the same sort of pressure on critical care as in previous waves.

A total of 501 patients in all hospitals in England were in mechanical ventilation beds on January 25, compared with 773 at the start of December – and well below the 3,736 recorded at the peak of the second wave on January 24 2021.