Covid-19: only 2% of hospitalizations were linked to it in 2020, true or fake?

On October 28, 2021, the Technical Agency for Information on Hospitalization (ATIH) published a report on hospital activity linked to Covid-19 in France in 2020. We learn that that year, the disease accounted for 2% of all hospitalizations and 5% of resuscitations. Figures considered particularly low by some Internet users, who think that the coronavirus has not done as much damage as what the government wanted us to believe. But what does the report actually say?

The numbers in the report

We can read that “During the year 2020, 218,000 patients were hospitalized for treatment of COVID-19“, which represents “2% of all hospitalized patients, all hospital fields combined”. These patients also represented “5% of all patients treated in critical care units”, Which encompasses resuscitation, continuing care and intensive care.

But we also learn that “more than one in ten patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit had COVID-19 (11%)” and “nearly one in five days of hospitalization in an intensive care unit was devoted to the care of COVID-19 patients (19%)”.

The importance of timeline

What is important to take into account – and this is what the report underlines – is first of all the chronology of hospitalizations for Covid-19. Indeed, the number of hospitalized patients was not the same depending on whether we were in the middle of an epidemic wave or not. Thus, the report highlights two important waves: that between March and May and that between October and December. “In 2020, the number of COVID patients in hospital was maximum on Monday April 6, is it specified. TO As of this date, nearly 35,100 COVID patients were hospitalized, all fields of hospitalization combined. Globally, the daily number of hospitalized COVID patients was over 30,000 during the period from March 30 to April 16, 2020. This threshold of 30,000 hospitalized COVID patients was again exceeded as of November 9, and, has minima, until November 17.“On these dates, the hospital tension was very real.

Take into account the length of hospitalization

Second element to take into consideration: the average length of hospitalization. This is longer for Covid patients than for patients affected by influenza, for example. “Among the patients hospitalized in the critical care unit, more than 29,000 were treated in the intensive care unit for an average duration of 15.7 days. For comparison, treatment in the intensive care unit for influenza in 2019 lasted on average 11.0 days per patient.”, Is it underlined in the report.

Covid-19: 1 in 5 patients died while in hospital

Finally, the death rates linked to Covid should also be taken into account, because, to say the least, edifying: “one in five patients hospitalized for COVID-19 died while in hospital. Among all the hospital deaths that occurred in 2020, 11% concerned COVID patients.”