New York, Mar 27 (IANS): Giving hospitalised Covid-19 patients aspirin could boost their chances of survival, suggests a new study.

New research by George Washington University suggests aspirin could still be effective for patients with moderate illness in their first few days in the hospital, reports Daily Mail.

The study of more than 100,000 patients found those given the blood thinner had a 15 per cent lower risk of dying from the virus within 28 days.

Patients were in their early 60s and around 15,000 were given an aspirin a day for five days, while the remaining 96,000 received normal hospital care.

Those who got the painkiller also had a 29 per cent reduced risk of blood clots -- one of the deadly complications of Covid.

Patients who appeared to benefit the most included patients older than 60 and those with comorbidities, the researchers found.

Aspirins are cheap blood-thinners commonly used to relieve pain, reduce swelling and bring down a high temperature.

More than half of the patients' given aspirin were suffering from high blood pressure (76 per cent of all patients), heart disease (55 per cent) and diabetes (51 per cent) at the time.

Almost half were also already taking aspirin pills before they were admitted to the hospital due to Covid. In the control group, it was four per cent.

Results showed about 22 per cent of over-80s who received aspirin died within 28 days of admission, lower than the 26 per cent in the other group.

For 61 to 80-year-olds, where 13 per cent of people died in the aspirin group compared to 16 per cent in the other.

About one per cent of aspirin patients suffered blood clots, compared to 1.4 per cent in the other groups.