Analysis: How ’virtual wards’ care for COVID-19 patients at home

Professor Naomi Fulop, Dr Cecilia Vindrola (both UCL Epidemiology & Health Care) and Professor Trish Greenhalgh (University of Oxford) explain how oximeters and 'virtual wards' are caring for COVID-19 patients at home and could help save lives. Do you own an oximeter? If so, do you know how and when to use it? It could save your life. COVID-19 has killed at least 60,000 people in the UK. Many who die have a sudden drop in their blood oxygen levels a day or two before their lungs fail. Unlike in many other chest diseases (asthma, for example), COVID-19 can cause a severe drop in blood oxygen level without any associated breathlessness. Because of this, people with this "silent hypoxia" are unlikely to seek the urgent help they need, unless they regularly measure their blood oxygen level or their condition deteriorates. If they realise something is wrong, they may reach hospital just in time to receive oxygen therapy (and, if necessary, ventilation).
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