The Daily Mail reports on a global study has found that, as a result of COVID, significantly fewer people are willing to give cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) than before:
Compared to before the Covid-19 era, 20 per cent fewer people would give mouth-to-mouth to a stranger, if they weren’t breathing. And 14 per cent fewer claimed they would give chest compressions, which could be the difference between life and death.
The findings are concerning because it is already known that Britons are reluctant to carry out CPR, with around three in ten claiming that they would not assist in saving a dying stranger.
Survival rates for cardiac arrests — which are different to heart attacks — stand at less than 10 per cent. But CPR can more than double a person’s chance of survival outside hospital, according to the British Heart Foundation.
Scientists urged people not to be put off giving first aid due to Covid-19 and insisted the odds of getting the infection this way was tiny.
Chest compressions can still be done with a towel, while wearing a face covering to avoid catching the disease. But health regulators have already urged Britons not to carry out mouth-to-mouth over Covid-19 fears.
