Risk of dying from Covid-19 in British hospitals has HALVED since the peak of the crisis in spring

 The risk of dying from Covid-19 in British hospitals has halved since the peak of the crisis in spring, according to research submitted to Number 10‘s scientists.

SAGE – the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies – heard how the mortality rate fell from 35 per cent in early April to 15 per cent by August.

Mortality rates dropped across all age groups, sexes, ethnicities and those suffering from underlying conditions.

Experts from the Government-run Coronavirus Clinical Characterisation Consortium (ISARIC4C), who conducted the study, said it was a sign that doctors had become better at treating the virus.

A number of cheap steroids, including dexamethasone and hydrocortisone, were proven to treat severe Covid over the summer and autumn.

The scientists say the initial high rates may have also been triggered because more elderly and vulnerable people were catching the disease.

At the start of the crisis masks were not mandatory and social distancing rules were not in place. It left at-risk groups, who are now told to isolate as much as possible, exposed to the disease.

They also suggested that because hospitals were far busier in spring it meant medics were spread thin, whereas now they can spend more time and resources treating each individual patient.

Britain has recorded more than 63,000 Covid-19 deaths since the pandemic began.

The ISARIC4C group submitted the study to SAGE after examining 63,972 Covid-19 patient admissions to 247 acute hospitals – about 48 per cent of the total –  from March 15 to August 2.

‘In-hospital mortality within 28 days after admission substantially decreased throughout the course of the first wave,’ they wrote.

‘At the peak of admissions in late March and early April, illness severity at several hospital presentations was greatest, and patients presented later from their onset of symptoms.

‘Overall, there was a reduction in the requirement for respiratory support; within this, use of invasive ventilation reduced over time, and non-invasive ventilation increased.’

At the start of the crisis the vast majority of ICU patients were put on mechanical ventilators to help them breathe.

But now there is a growing suspicion the machines actually inflame the lungs of some patients even further.