Medical Centre

Our recent study in the journal Thorax examined patient outcomes following emergency admission to hospital for COVID-19 compared with influenza. We used routinely collected primary and secondary care data. Outcomes, measured for 90 days follow-up after discharge were length of stay in hospital, mortality, emergency readmission and primary care activity. The study included 5132 patients admitted to hospital as an emergency, with COVID-19 and influenza cohorts comprising 3799 and 1333 patients respectively. Patients in the COVID-19 cohort were more likely to stay in hospital longer than 10 days (OR 3.91, 95% CI 3.14 to 4.65); and more likely to die in hospital (OR 11.85, 95% CI 8.58 to 16.86) and within 90 days of discharge (OR 7.92, 95% CI 6.20 to 10.25). For those who survived, rates of emergency readmission within 90 days were comparable between COVID-19 and influenza cohorts (OR 1.07, 95% CI 0.89 to 1.29), while primary care activity was greater among the COVID-19 cohort (incide...

  Why are so many people coming down with Covid again? The current wave of Covid-19 infections is being caused by highly infectious subvariants (BA.4 and BA.5) of the Omicron variant that entered the UK in late 2021. These subvariants are more infectious than the previous variants of the coronavirus that the UK has faced. They are also more likely to cause reinfections. Other factors increasing the number of infections include greater mixing of people now that Covid-19 measures in the UK have ended and reduced protection from infection from vaccines because many people are more than six months since their last Covid-19 vaccination.   Are the new variants worse than the other variants? Although they are more infectious than other variants, the new subvariants of Omicron do not cause more severe disease and on average, they probably cause a milder illness. However, because of the very large number of infections caused by these subvariants, some people will have a serious...