A study of New York’s largest health system has found that almost nine in 10 COVID-19 patients placed on ventilators subsequently died.

The study was based on Manhattan’s Northwell Health network where the overall death rate from coronavirus is as high as 20 per cent.

When it came to patients who had to be placed on ventilators, the death rate rose to an alarming 88 per cent.

More than 17,000 New Yorkers have now died from the virus.

In Australia, that figure is 83.

So what are the chances of recovery for infected Australians who find themselves in ICU hooked up to a device that forces air into their lungs because their body has lost the ability to breathe independently?

A COVID-19 patient attached to a ventilator at St Joseph's Hospital in Yonkers, New York. Credit: John Minchillo / AP

Extraordinarily good, according to figures provided to 7NEWS.com.au.

Only 41 patients diagnosed with coronavirus in Australia so far have ended up on a ventilator.

And among those, only four subsequently died.

That’s a mortality rate of less than 10 per cent for COVID-19 patients who are placed on ventilators.

Mattia Guarneri, age 18, became the youngest person in Italy to fully recover after being connected to a ventilator. Credit: Marco Mantovani / Getty Images

Greg King is Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Sydney’s Woolcock Institute.

He told 7NEWS.com.au he believed a range of factors could explain the marked differences in health outcomes for coronavirus patients here and in New York.

The virus hit New Yorkers at the tail end of winter, the air quality of the city is probably poorer, and the virus could have simply been more virulent there than what we’re experiencing here.

Mattia Guarneri was discharged from Cremona Hospital on April 16, becoming the youngest COVID-19 patient in Italy to survive being in a coma and attached to a ventilator. Credit: Marco Mantovani / Getty

But probably more significant is that fewer people are being placed on ventilators in Australia.

“As the US numbers show, intubation is futile in many, who probably would have died anyway,” King said.

“If a patient’s condition is bleak, intubation needs careful consideration, and we can do that here because we haven’t been swamped.”

Life and death decisions

Healthcare professionals make life and death decisions over the allocation of resources - based not only on who needs those resources most, but also who has the most likely chance of recovery by receiving those resources.

“And in intensive care, that’s the way we’ve always operated and the way we always should,” King said.

Australian health professionals have more time to carefully assess each case and make decisions on their care because our health system is not overwhelmed.

A worker in Indonesia shows an artificial ventilator being tested on a medical dummy. Credit: Barcroft Media / Getty

Then there’s the socio-economic factor.

In the US, where there is no universal healthcare system, people from disadvantaged backgrounds presenting at hospitals with COVID-19 are more likely to have longstanding co-morbidity issues.

Chevron Right Icon ‘If this doesn’t change Americans’ minds...then nothing will.’

Conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease are under-managed and under-treated among poorer people in the US.

“Without medical insurance, they can’t pay for the treatment we take for granted,” King said.

“If this doesn’t change Americans’ minds over the need for a universal healthcare system - like Barack Obama tried to do - then nothing will.”

In the video below, inside the McLaren factory building ventilator equipment

Inside the McLaren factory building ventilator equipment

The disturbing New York study, published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, also hones in on the co-morbidity factor.

More than half of those who ended up in ICU in New York had high blood pressure, more than 40 per cent were classified as obese and 34 per cent had diabetes.

More on 7NEWS.com.au

In fact, if an infected person is also diabetic, they are about three times more likely to end up on a ventilator - and subsequently dying - than a non-diabetic.

And if they are male, the chances of survival become even slimmer, with estimates men are dying from the virus at twice the rate of women.