Higher hospital death rates in second wave might be due to new variant
The new coronavirus variant detected in SA late in 2020 may be one reason for the higher death rates among patients hospitalised with Covid-19 during the country’s second wave of infections, according to a study released on Thursday.
Analysis of records from 627 public and private hospitals found the in-hospital case fatality rate peaked at 29.1% during the second wave, compared to 20.8% at the peak of the first wave, an increase of almost 40%. The second wave saw a steeper rise in new cases and hospital admissions than the first wave, peaking in January at levels almost double that of the first peak in July...
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