During Pennsylvanias first big COVID-19 wave, nearly 20% of hospital patients who had it died. That figure, from April of 2020, represents the peak in-hospital mortality rate for COVID-19 in Pennsylvania through the end of 2021.<\/p>\n
The hospital mortality rate varied going forward, dropping to around 8% in July of 2020 and April of 2021, but rising above 13% during the winter surges of 2020 and 2021. It was nearly 15% as recently as recently as the fall of 2021.<\/p>\n
The data comes from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, a state agency that collects health care information. The PHC4 doesnt provide medical explanations for the data and things like variations in the mortality rate.<\/p>\n
The figures cover the period from the start of COVID-19 related hospitalizations in early 2020 to the end of 2021. During that period, the highest number of hospitalizations in any month, about 25,000, took place in December of 2020.<\/p>\n
The data show breathing ventilator use was highest in the spring of 2020, with about 16% of COVID-19 patients put on ventilators. The rate was about 11% in late 2021 as Pennsylvania faced another big wave of cases and hospitalizations.<\/p>\n
The data, which can be read here, reflect various characteristics of COVID-19 patients such as age, sex and race.<\/p>\n
During the final three months of 2021, nearly 40,000 people with COVID-19 were hospitalized. However, an unknown number tested positive for COVID-19 at the hospital, but may have been hospitalized for other reasons and not significantly affected by COVID-19.<\/p>\n
A rose is placed on the casket of Gerald Welch, a Harrisburg school board member who died of COVID-19 in spring 2020.(Sean Simmers | ssimmers@pennlive.com<\/a>, file)<\/p>\n During that period, 14.6% of the patients died in the hospital. The average hospital stay was 8.2 days. The hospitalizations included 770 people 18 or younger, with those patients having a 1.3% mortality rate and 6.1% needing ventilators.<\/p>\n The highest mortality rate involved people over 85, with 20% dying in the hospital. The most hospitalizations involved people 65-74, with nearly 9,000 hospitalized during the last three months of 2021, and about 18% dying.<\/p>\n Overall, more men than women ended up in the hospital with COVID-19; 16% of the men died, compared to 13% of women.<\/p>\n As of Aug. 1, Pennsylvania had a total of 46,164 COVID-19 deaths, according to tracking by Johns Hopkins University. The state was averaging 16 deaths per day as of early August, well below the peak of about 220 in early 2021.<\/p>\n In general, doctors say vaccination and improvements in treatment including new drugs that can prevent infected people from becoming severely ill have substantially decreased the chances of dying from COVID-19.<\/p>\n More:<\/p>\n Penn State is changing its guidelines on COVID quarantine, isolation ahead of fall semester<\/p>\n <\/p>\n See the article here: <\/p>\n COVID-19 at its worst killed one-in-five it hospitalized in Pa., new data shows - PennLive<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" During Pennsylvanias first big COVID-19 wave, nearly 20% of hospital patients who had it died. That figure, from April of 2020, represents the peak in-hospital mortality rate for COVID-19 in Pennsylvania through the end of 2021. The hospital mortality rate varied going forward, dropping to around 8% in July of 2020 and April of 2021, but rising above 13% during the winter surges of 2020 and 2021. Continue reading