One in four Covid patients in ICU this year mainly there due to virus – report

More than a quarter of Covid-19 patients in intensive care this year were there mainly because of the virus, according to a new report.

The Public Health Scotland (PHS) report said 296 patients have been admitted to intensive care units (ICU) since January 1 this year, when the Omicron variant became the predominant strain in Scottish ICUs.

It said since that date, just over one in four (26%) ICU admissions had Covid-19 as the “primary reason for admission to critical care on clinical case note review”.

In a further 14%, Covid-19 “may have contributed to the reason for admission, though was not the primary reason”, while in 60% of admissions, the positive PCR test was “coincidental to the reason for admission”.

PHS said it was not able to publish the coronavirus data it normally publishes on weekdays on Thursday due to a technical issue.

It tweeted: “Due to a technical issue, unfortunately Public Health Scotland is unable to report on the latest available figures on Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Scotland today.

“We are working hard to resolve this and hope to return to normal reporting tomorrow.”

Wednesday’s data showed 45 coronavirus-linked deaths and 3,976 cases had been recorded in Scotland in the previous 24 hours.

There were 1,819 people in hospital on Wednesday with recently confirmed Covid-19, down 14 on the previous day.

There were 20 people in intensive care, up four.