On Sky News on 12 December Dr Ruth Hopkins, a public health lecturer from the University of Swansea, gave a figure for the number of patients currently hospitalised with Covid-19 in Wales. She said: “I’ve just looked at the figures. There are 10,000—roughly 10,000—patients, inpatients, in hospitals with Covid in Wales, of which there are about 200 that are in critical care.”
This isn’t correct. Data published by the Welsh government on 13 December shows that the average total number of general and acute beds occupied in hospitals for Covid-19 related reasons in the week up to 9 December was 526. This includes patients with a suspected or confirmed case of Covid-19 and those recovering from the disease. Over the same period there were an average of 39 invasively ventilated beds occupied by people with Covid-19.
The most recent daily data available is for 10 December. This shows 523 acute and general beds occupied by Covid-19 patients and 37 invasively ventilated beds.
It’s not clear where the 10,000 figure came from, and we have asked Dr Hopkins to clarify. However, it is worth being aware that in total there are fewer than 10,000 acute and general medicine beds currently occupied in Wales.