The British Medical Journal revealed on Wednesday a calculator that can predict patients’ risk of death from the coronavirus, Daily Mail reported.
The calculator has a checklist that includes: age, sex, number of co-morbidities or other health conditions, rate of breathing, oxygen saturation levels, level of consciousness, urea level, amount of a protein circulating in the blood that shows inflammation.
The calculator has a scoring range between 0 and 21. This device will be used at the entrance of the hospitals.
If a patient scores high, s/he may be rushed to the intensive care unit; those who score low will be discharged.
This calculator will also help in containing the overwhelming crowd in hospitals due to the coronavirus.
The researchers developed the app after testing it on over 57,000 patients in the United Kingdom. Patients who participated in the study had an average age of 74 years.
The calculator classifies people into four cohorts — ‘low risk’, ‘medium risk’, ‘high risk’, or ‘very high risk’.
Researchers stated that patients with a score below three show less than one per cent chance of death.
However, patients with scores 9 and above will be placed at high risk, with a 50 per cent chance of death. While those above 15 have a 62 per cent chance of death, the Daily Mail report added.
This comes at a time when the UK is bracing for the second wave of the virus. The country has witnessed a sudden spike in the number of cases of the virus.
According to a Telegraph report, the spike rate is growing as fast as it was in April this year.
The Telegraph further analysed the data released by Public Health England which shows new infections are doubling every nine days, up from 20 days within a week.
This sudden rise will likely overwhelm hospitals and quarantine centres.
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