A unique way of comparing COVID-19 in Europe

When governments or analysts want to judge the severity of a COVID-19 outbreak in a country, they usually do this by comparing the number of cases, deaths or the positivity rate between countries. Another way to compare the severity of a COVID-19 outbreak, is by monitoring how many COVID-19 patients are currently in hospital and on intensive care in various countries. In this article I will show and compare these numbers for European countries, as of February 4th. Please note: this only includes those countries who actually publish these numbers.

Previous updates can be found here: 

• Comparing COVID-19 patients in hospital and ICU (Europe, Oct 1)
• Comparing COVID-19 patients in hospital and ICU (Europe, Oct 29)
• Comparing COVID-19 patients in hospital and ICU (Europe, Nov 12)
• Comparing COVID-19 patients in hospital and ICU (Europe, Dec 10)
• Comparing COVID-19 patients in hospital and ICU (Europe, Jan 7)

COVID-19 patients currently in hospital

The following chart shows the number of COVID-19 patients currently in hospital per country, relative to population size. All data has been gathered from official government sources on January 7th.

For example: United Kingdom currently has 31670 COVID-19 patients in hospital. (source). Divided by 67.5 mln inhabitants, this means there are currently 469.0 hospitalized COVID-19 patients per 1 mln inhabitants.

COVID-19 patients currently on Intensive Care

The following chart shows the number of COVID-19 patients currently on Intensive Care per country, relative to population size. All data has been gathered from official government sources on January 7th.

Note: some countries report on 'patients on mechanical ventilation', instead of 'Intensive Care'. For those countries that number is used instead.

Interpretation of the charts

• The vast majority of European countries are reporting decreasing numbers of coronavirus patients in hospital and on ICU.
• Three countries are currently reporting the highest number of COVID-patients on Intensive Care relative to population size: Spain, Czechia, Slovenia and Portugal. Especially Spain and Portugal stand out as the countries scoring high in both COVID-19 patients in hospital and COVID-19 patients on ICU.
• The countries with the lowest number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients per capita, we once again find in the Nordic region: Iceland, Finland, Norway and Denmark.

Current trends (comparing with January 7th)

• The countries which reported the biggest drop in COVID-19 patients in hospital over the past four weeks were:

1. Denmark -48%
2. Sweden -47%
3. Luxembourg -41%
4. Serbia -37%
5. Iceland -35%
6. Finland -32%
7. Austria -30%
8. Bulgaria -30%
9. Netherlands -26%
10. Poland -23%

• The countries which reported the biggest increase in COVID-19 patients in hospital over the same period of time were:

1. Spain +101%
2. Portugal +95%
3. Ireland +28%
4. Hungary +19%
5. Slovakia +18%
6. France +13%

• The countries which reported the biggest drop in coronavirus patients on ICU over the past four weeks were:

1. Luxembourg -53.8%
2. Serbia -39.7%
3. Greece -36.3%
4. Denmark -35.8%
5. Sweden -35.5%
6. Estonia -34%
7. Switzerland -32.5%

• At the same time the countries which reported the biggest increase in coronavirus patients on ICU since January 7th were:

1. Spain +109.1%
2. Portugal +67.9%
3. Ireland +35.6%
4. Norway +35.5%
5. Hungary +32.4%
6. United Kingdom +28.5%
7. France +24.8%

Charts per country (if available)

Austria

The Austrian health agency (AGES) currently shows the following charts on its official tracker which indicate that the number of hospitalized patients has been steadily decreasing in recent weeks in Austria.

Belgium

The following chart shows the current number of COVID-19 confirmed patients on ICU's in Belgium. As can be seen, the number of coronavirus patients on ICU has continued to decrease, although the decrease is starting to come to a halt.

Czechia

The following chart shows the number of COVID-19 patients currently in hospital (blue line) and the number of COVID-19 patients currently on intensive care (red line) in Czechia.

Denmark

The chart below by the Danish National Health Institute shows the number of coronavirus patients in hospital and on ICU has been steadily decreasing since December 2020.

Finland

The following chart shows the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients ('Vuodeosasto') and ICU-patients ('Tehohoito') in Finland. The number of hospitalized patients per capita in Finland continues to be among the lowest of Europe. 

France

The French government typically publishes its data, including their overseas departments, while we at Newsnodes have been working hard to exclude this type of data. For our calculations in this article, we have used the French government data for 'mainland France' only, which today is 27737 hospitalized and 3242 on intensive care. The two charts below visualize the number of hospitalized patients and on ICU (incl. overseas territories). The charts show the number of COVID-patients in hospital and on ICU have been increasing last weeks, while already at a very high level in France.

Germany

The chart below, published by RKI, shows the number coronavirus patients on intensive care in Germany over time. Germany reached the peak of 5762 patients on intensive care in early January, but saw a sharp decrease of COVID-19 patients on ICU since.

Ireland

The following charts show the number of COVID-19 patients currently in hospital and on ICU in Ireland. Both charts indicate that Ireland peaked in mid January and is now back on the right track.

Latvia

The chart below shows the number of COVID-19 patients currently in hospital in Latvia, both in moderate and in severe condition. Latvia seems to have peaked in early January, but the number of coronavirus-patients in Latvia is going down slowly.

Luxembourg

The following chart shows both the number of patients currently on 'normal care' (blue line) and 'intensive care' (red line) in Luxembourg. In recent weeks, Luxembourg has continued to report decreasing numbers of COVID-19 patients in hospital and on ICU, although the decrease is starting to slow.

Netherlands

The following charts show the number of COVID-19 patients currently in hospital (first chart) and on intensive care (second chart) in the Netherlands. The Netherlands is currently reporting a slow but steady decrease in the number of COVID-patients in hospital and on ICU.

Portugal

The following chart shows the number of COVID-19 patients in hospital (blue bars) and on ICU (red line) in Portugal. During January, Portugal saw a rapid increase in the hospitalized patients (+95%) and on ICU (+68%), but it looks like things are starting to turn around for Portugal with a first decrease in recent days.

Spain

The following chart shows the number of COVID-19 patients in hospital (blue line) and on ICU (red line) in Spain. Like Portugal, Spain saw a very strong increase in hospitalized patients (+101%) and on ICU (+109%) during the last 4 weeks, but (again just like Portugal) it looks like a decrease has just started in Spain!

Sweden

Below chart is published by the Swedish ICU-register society and shows the number of coronavirus patients currently on ICU. In December, Sweden was reporting ever increasing numbers of covid-patients but in early January made a perfect U-turn and has been reporting rapidly decreasing numbers since.

Switzerland

The Swiss federal government releases information on COVID-19 patients currently on ICU in its weekly coronavirus-report. The following chart shows the ICU-capacity including the percentage of current COVID-19 patients. In recent weeks, the number of COVID-19 patients on ICU has continued to decrease.

United Kingdom

Below charts by the UK government show the evolution of number of COVID-19 patients in hospital and on ICU over time. Although there are currently still more coronavirus patients in hospital and on ICU than during the first wave peak (April 2020), the UK is definitely on the right track in getting the new UK-strain under control.

Do you know of more European governments who publish a chart on current COVID-19 hospitalizations or ICU-patients? Share it with us by sending an e-mail or Twitter message!