Although ICU stays for Covid patients have shortened since the first wave of the pandemic last spring, deaths have risen slightly as the majority of those admitted are over 60 years of age.
Patients now spend an average of 11 days indoors, compared to 14 at the end of August last year, with hospital figures showing February.
However, the average age of those entering the ICU has risen, which has led to a slight increase in mortality, as those over 60 have a higher risk of contracting the virus than younger adults.
Dexamethasone and less invasive ventilation
Intensive care specialist Matti Reinikainen said two factors contributed to a shorter ICU stay: the steroid dexamethasone, which has been given since last summer, and fewer patients placed in ventilators, which requires general anesthesia.
Dexamethasone, the same drug as the former president of the United States Donald Trump taken into treatment, helps control inflammation and prevent lung damage. This helps keep patients away from the fans.
This year, about 40 percent of Covid patients have received intubation and ventilation, up from 60 percent at the end of last summer.
Reinikainen, who heads anesthesiology and intensive care at Kuopio University Hospital, said that less invasive treatment has probably helped speed up patients’ recovery.
The ICU is dying
However, more patients who have received ICU are now dying than during the first wave of the pandemic. Reinikainen said this was due to the patients’ older age.
At the end of last August, 16 percent of Covid patients receiving ICU died. Today, that figure has risen to 21 percent.
Less than a quarter of those in the targeted units last spring were aged 60-69, but now this age group is over 35 per cent.
Last year, 70-79 year olds accounted for about 15 percent of ICU patients. Now they compose more than a quarter.
There is no time to relax
According to Reinikainen, Finland needs to increase crisis awareness around the pandemic in order to prevent hospitals from filling Covid patients.
"Last spring, a new and frightening disease helped the city streets. You don’t see it now," he said. " [hospitalisation] the trend is pointing upwards."
The National Institute of Public Health (THL) estimates that 25 to 44 Covid patients will need ICU treatment next week. This would mean that Finland could see as many people in intensive care as in the peak season last spring, 83 ICU patients.
Source: The Nordic Page