Large majority of coronavirus patients on ventilators in major NY health system died, researchers say

More than 85 percent of those placed on ventilators in New York’s largest hospital system due to coronavirus symptoms later died from the disease, a study has found.

CNN reported Thursday that a study from researchers at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and Northwell Health, which employs more than 68,000 people in the state, found that the overall death rate among COVID-19 patients in the health system was about 20 percent.

Among those who had to be placed on ventilators, 12 percent of the overall population of COVID-19 patients, that death rate jumped to 88 percent, according to the study.

The study’s authors cautioned that those percentages could change since of the 5,700 patients they examined, final outcomes were known for just 2,634 as many remained hospitalized at the time of publication.

“This study reported mortality rates only for patients with definite outcomes (discharge or death), and a longer-term study may find different mortality rates as different segments of the population are infected,” the authors wrote, according to CNN.

The dire numbers come as states across the country have sought out ventilators from the federal government and private suppliers in the face of a nationwide shortage amid the coronavirus outbreak, with the overall hospitalization rate in the U.S. thought to be about 20 per 100,000 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

New York has registered more than 257,000 cases of the coronavirus and more than 15,000 deaths from the virus as of Thursday.