Covid: 95% of Hywel Dda patients in hospital for other things

Across Wales, 72% of patients with confirmed Covid are in hospital for other reasons

More than 90% of patients with Covid in hospitals in two health boards in Wales are being treated mainly for other conditions, new figures show.

Only two of the 40 patients (5%) with confirmed Covid in Hywel Dda - covering Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire - were "actively" being treated for the virus on Friday.

At Aneurin Bevan health board, that was five out of 66 patients (or 8%).

Meanwhile, Covid admissions are their lowest levels since August.

The growing number of "incidental" Covid cases in hospital is a reflection of the thousands of people in the community with milder Omicron symptoms, an estimated 121,200 people across Wales with Covid in the most recent week.

So some people coming into hospital to be treated for other conditions either have Covid on admission - or are infected while in hospital.

There were 213 "probable" or "definite" hospital-acquired Covid cases across Wales in the most recent week.

On Friday, there were 341 patients in acute hospitals with confirmed Covid, according to Digital Health and Care Wales.

Of these, we know only 28% were being "actively" or primarily treated for Covid - the other 72% or 247 patients have "incidental" Covid.

But in Hywel Dda, only 5% of its Covid patients were being primarily treated for the virus, while Aneurin Bevan, covering Newport, Monmouthshire and the old Gwent valleys, had only 8% of Covid patients being "actively" treated for it.

Having "incidental" Covid does not mean there are not complications for some patients, while managing the treatment of coronavirus patients brings challenges to hospitals.

Earlier in the pandemic, during the Alpha and Delta variant waves of Covid, at least 70% of Covid patients were estimated to have been "actively" being treated for the virus.

But figures, now being published daily by health boards, are showing a shift and in recent weeks the proportion of "incidental" Covid patients has grown substantially.

Meanwhile there were 15 patients across Wales in critical care or on invasive ventilation, on Friday, roughly the same as the week before. Eight were in Cardiff and Vale with three health boards having just one critically ill Covid patient.

Twelve of these patients were "actively" being treated for Covid.

Hospital admissions with confirmed or suspected Covid have dropped to a daily average of 22 - half of what they were in mid-January and the lowest levels since 23 August.

Covid cases, as published by Public Health Wales, continue to go down but are more complicated to interpret, as for the last five weeks most people who take positive lateral flow tests are not asked to take a follow-up test and do not show up in the figures.

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But even if we take into account these positive lateral flow results, the overall case rate would be about 60% down on the peak in early January.

The weekly swab survey by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) doesn't rely on people with symptoms taking a test and that too estimated a fall in infections in Wales, affecting one in 25 of the population, compared with one in 20 the week before.

Meanwhile, new modelling from the ONS estimates 2.6% of people in Wales of working age were self-isolating due to Covid in the last week in January.

This is an increase on mid-January. The highest point - coinciding with the peak of the Omicron wave in early January - saw 4.2% of the people of working age self-isolating.

ONS estimates at a UK-level that the social care and teaching professions saw the highest proportions self-isolating, and those working in retail the lowest.