DEATHS HEALTH SYSTEM - ICU FACILITIES
The country, before the COVID-19 pandemic did not have enough ICU beds to cover the anticipated demand, a fact that guided the governement’s prompt response with lockdown policies during the first wave. In pararell, new ICU beds were created reaching the average (12 ICU beds per 100.000 population) by November 2020.
ICU Beds per 100,000 Pop
Below we notice the obvious trend of deaths following ICU beds admissions. The first wave’s peak of ICU beds admissions is 93 in April’20, while the second and third waves peaks reached the dramatic numbers of 622 and 847 in December’20 and April’21 respectively.
Deaths and ICU Patients
Health system requirements are depicted on the following figures regarding hospital admissions and intensice care units load for the 3rd wave.
The following graph demonstrates the pressure on the health system during the 3rd wave (February ’21 to May ’21). As we can see, for most of this period, hospitalizations are higher than discharges. This trend was reversed during May and June ’21, but reappeared from July onwards due to Delta mutation, which accelarated the spread.
Hospitalizations MA7 vs Discharged MA7
During the same period of the 3rd wave, we can see below the ICU beds usage by four different age groups. It is impressive to realize that ICU beds are highly occupied by people over 40 years of age and especially over 65 years. Towards the end and of April ’21 ICU beds occupation reached their peak at 89.8 %.
ICU Patiens
It is interesting to note that after vaccination (from May ’21 onwards), ICU beds are occupied equally by under and over 65 year-old.
Age distribution in ICU
