One in every five coronavirus patients or 21% of those hospitalized in the third wave of the pandemic died while in the hospital. In the first and second waves, one in every eight, or 12.6%, passed away while hospitalized with the virus. From the moment of diagnosis, 25% of hospitalized coronavirus patients died during the third wave as opposed to 13.3% in the first and second waves.
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During the third wave of the pandemic, when 1,100 Israelis were in serious condition with the virus, hospital officials warned they had reached maximum capacity and warned of excessive mortality as a result of hospitals being overwhelmed.
Health Ministry officials, however, have attributed the increase in mortality levels to the dominance of the variant first identified in the UK as well as stricter criteria for hospitalization in the third wave.
The findings were collected and analyzed by Health Ministry official Professor Yaron Niv, as part of efforts to analyze the safety quality of care afforded to coronavirus patients. According to the data collected, morbidity levels doubled in the third wave and the number of patients on ventilators nearly doubled.
The proportion of patients receiving high levels of oxygen increased from 19% in the first to 31.2% in the second wave. The number of people on ventilators increased from 9% in the first and second waves to 14% in the third wave, and the proportion of seriously ill patients on ECMO machines increased from 0.7% to 1.5% in the third wave.
The use of medication to treat the virus increased from 50% in the first and second waves to 75.6% in the third wave, and anticoagulant use increased from 66% in the first and second waves to 80% in the third wave. Use of Remdesivir, the first experimental treatment to be approved for use against the coronavirus, decreased from 19% to 15% as did treatment with plasma from individuals that recovered from the virus from 8.09% to 5.75%.
"Among all those infected, it was in fact in the first wave that there was a higher rate of deaths and that decreased by the third wave, but among those hospitalized in the third wave, there were twice as many deaths as in the first and second waves," Niv explained.
He said: "We saw that the average hospitalization time actually shortened between the waves, and that's because the medicine administered was better in the third wave than the first and second [waves]. We saw a change in medicinal treatment – in the third wave, patients were treated more with steroids because they saw it worked and less so with Remdesivir. That shows that we're constantly learning, and there is joint learning among the hospitals."
Rambam Health Care Campus Director Dr. Michael Halbertal noted morbidity levels were severe and "there was significant morbidity, and the [UK] variant is one of the reasons for that. There was a significant strain on the hospitals. We always said that we can offer solutions to the strain, but this has consequences. There was a certain compromise in the number of nursing services provided – both for regular medical treatment as well as for coronavirus patients. With us, I don't think anyone was hurt as a result."
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