In-patient fatality rate of ICU patients in China steadily decreases: expert

BEIJING -- The fatality rate of hospitalized patients in the critical care units in China has dropped to about 8.3 percent in the past decade, said a critical care expert.

According to Qiu Haibo, director of the Clinical Quality Control Center for Critical Care Medicine, in the past 10 years, the number of hospitals with intensive care departments in China increased from more than 1,000 to over 4,000.

The number of licensed doctors in intensive care units (ICUs) in China has increased to more than 60,000, while there are now more than 100,000 ICU nurses, said Qiu.

Among the 42,600 medical professionals who went to Hubei, the province previously hardest hit by COVID-19, to battle the epidemic earlier this year, 19,000 were ICU medics, about one-tenth of the country's intensive care personnel, Qiu added.