The total number of care cases is 8 272, which means that some of the patients have been cared for repeatedly in the intensive care unit. The average age of an intensive care unit is 61,3 years. Of those admitted to intensive care, 71,2 percent are men and 28,8 percent women.
Just over four out of five intensive care units, 82,1 percent, include some form of risk factor. According to the Intensive Care Registry, the risk factor may signify any of the following: “children with multiple disabilities, hypertension, 65 years or older, pregnancy, chronic heart-lung disease, chronic liver-kidney disease, impaired immune system, diabetes, obesity, neuromuscular disease, other specified risk factor”.
The number of intensive care cases increased sharply from the beginning of November, and then halved in February. Since then, however, the situation has worsened and today there are almost as many in intensive care as in January, around 350. However, it is clearly lower than the number who were intensively cared for when the first wave broke out, when the highest number was over 550 people in intensive care at the same time.
Despite the increased number of inpatients in the intensive care units, the number of deaths has fallen sharply. The Swedish Public Health Agency explained that the oldest have been vaccinated and that the younger ones who are infected suffer from illness but rarely die.