Statistics gathered and analyzed by Professor Yaron Niv, the Health Ministry's Deputy Director General of Quality and Safety, showed a drastic change in the number of patients who required intubation during the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Israel Hayom reported.
Professor Niv's work was done in the framework of a committee formed to ensure quality and safety of the treatment for coronavirus patients.
The data showed that the percentage of hospitalized patients who required high-pressure oxygen rose from 19% in the first wave to nearly one-third (31.2%) in the second wave. The percentage of intubated patients rose from 9% in the first and second waves to 14% in the third wave, and the percentage of seriously ill patients who required an ECMO machine doubled, from 0.7% to 1.5% in the third wave.
The treatments used to treat coronavirus patients also changed between the waves of infections: The use of steroids rose from 50% of patients in the first and second waves to 75.6% in the third wave. In addition, the use of anticoagulants rose from 66% in the first and second waves to use in treating nearly 80% of seriously ill patients in the third wave.
At the same time, the use of Remdesivir, the first treatment to receive emergency approval for use in treating coronavirus, dropped from 19% to around 15%, and the use of plasma from recovered patients dropped from 8.09% to 5.75%.