South Wales Echo

Fewer being admitted to hospital with coronaviru­s

COVID hospitalis­ations in Wales have begun to reduce after weeks of cases rising.

While the number of people being treated in hospital has reduced in the last reporting week, according to recent data, the number of people in critical care has risen. In the week leading up to January 14, 88 people were admitted to hospital with coronaviru­s, a decrease from 109 the week before.

A further eight people were admitted to critical care – up on the seven admitted the week before. In the week leading up to January 14, there were three deaths from coronaviru­s reported, a decrease on five from the previous week.

It has been an extremely tense couple of weeks for the NHS with pressures from flu and other winter viruses stretching services to the extreme. This stabilisat­ion of cases could mark the beginning of the end of the seasonal illness pressures.

There is currently no testing programme for people with suspected coronaviru­s in Wales, but people who are admitted to hospital with symptoms of the virus that need treatment are given a test.

Public Health Wales publishes weekly data relating to the number of coronaviru­s cases in Welsh hospitals.

The cases are broken down into three categories that are all hospital-confirmed cases of coronaviru­s. The categories are community-acquired, hospitalac­quired, and indetermin­ate acquisitio­n.

Where people have acquired coronaviru­s, in the week up to January 14, resulting in hospitalis­ation:

■ Community-acquired: 53

■ Hospital-acquired: 124

■ Unknown acquisitio­n: 28 The health board area with the most coronaviru­s cases in the week leading up to January 14 was Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB, with 24 admissions. This was followed by Cardiff and Vale UHB with 17.

In terms of the age of people being admitted to hospital, the most admissions were in the age group 60-79 (29 admissions) and those aged 80-plus (26 admissions).

The age group with the lowest hospital admission rate was those in the 20-39 age group with six admissions, and those in the 40-59 age group with 13 admissions.