More patients were admitted to ICU in the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic last year than in the earlier waves and they were more likely to die, Australian research shows. 

The demographics were different, intensivists say, as these patients were also less likely to have comorbid conditions, to be young, pregnant and/or obese — as well as being mostly unvaccinated.

Thirty patients died during the first wave, 35 in the second wave and 281 during the third, or Delta, wave.

“After adjusting for age, illness severity and other covariates, the risk of in-hospital mortality was similar for the first and second waves, but 9.60 percentage points higher during the third than the first wave,” the researchers, led by Monash University, wrote in the Medical Journal of Australia.