The death rate for people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Pennsylvania in the early months of the pandemic was 16.3%.
That’s far more than the 3% mortality rate for people who have been hospitalized with regular flu in the past year, according to new research from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council.
The PHC4 looked at COVID-19 hospitalizations in Pennsylvania from March to June 2020. About 19,100 people were hospitalized during that time, culminating in Pennsylvania’s first wave of COVID-19 infections. More than 3,100 of the patients died.
The PHC4 compares the mortality rates of the COVID-19 patients with those of ordinary flu patients from 2017 to 2020. About three percent of the flu patients died in each of the years.
The highest number of flu hospitals, 17,686, occurred in 2018. About 513 of the patients died.
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Pennsylvania has seen a second surge of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths beginning last fall and continuing until 2021. The second boom was much worse, with more illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths. The PHC4 investigation only looks at the first boom.
The general thinking is that during the course of the pandemic, people are less likely to die from COVID-19, for reasons including better treatments and knowledge on how to best care for them.
As of Tuesday, 20,883 people had died in COVID-19.
The PHC4 found that during the earlier boom:
- COVID-19 patients spent an average of 8.8 days in hospital, while approximately 17% were admitted to hospital for two weeks or longer;
- About 16% needed a fan
Of the 19,177 people admitted to hospital:
- 2,614 were 85 or older, with about 28% dying;
- 3,420 were 75-84, with about 25% dying;
- 4,045 were 65-74, about 20% dying;
- 3,860 were 55-64, with about 12% dying;
- 2,373 were 45-54, about 8% dying;
- 1,384 were 35-44, with 3% dying;
- 956 were 25-34, with 1.4% dying;
- 330 were 18-24, with no mortality rate due to the low volume;
- 194 was less than 18, and no mortality rate was calculated.
The full report can be read at www.PHC4.com.