United Kingdom: Third of Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients Are Dying, Toll Passes 26k

By Staff, Agencies

The United Kingdom's official COVID-19 coronavirus death toll spiked an additional 3,811 victims Wednesday, after fatalities in non-hospital - particularly care homes - were added for the first time.

The kingdom’s death toll now stands at 26,097, although according to the BBC, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said that this did not represent a "sudden surge" as the figure included deaths since March 2. He maintained that the UK was still in a precarious position because the virus' peak had still not passed.

The total only includes people who died after testing positive for coronavirus, the BBC added.

Of the more than 26,000 deaths, approximately 70 percent occurred outside hospitals with the remainder taking place in medical centers.

Relatively, one third of coronavirus patients admitted to hospital in the UK are dying, a study has suggested, with figures indicating the virus is just as deadly as Ebola for those forced to seek emergency medical treatment.

Now a study of data representing 16,749 patients across 166 hospitals between early February and mid-April has found almost half of those admitted did not have underlying health conditions – while obese people were 40 per cent more likely to die as a result of the virus than those who were not obese.

Of the patients studied, 47 per cent had no underlying conditions, while 29 per cent had heart disease, 19 per cent had diabetes, 19 per cent had non-asthmatic chronic pulmonary disease and 14 per cent had asthma.

The study also found that women were 20 per cent less likely to die from the virus than men.

Overall, 49 per cent of patients were discharged alive during the study, 33 per cent died and 17 per cent continued to receive care.

The latest figures place the UK as the nation with the third highest death rate worldwide – with Italy and the US the only nations to have seen more confirmed fatalities.