The five percent of people in Britain predicted by a new tool to be at highest risk from COVID-19 accounted for three-quarters of deaths during the first wave of the pandemic, researchers reported Wednesday.

As countries worldwide grapple with a second wave of disease, the risk-assessment method -- which also predicts the chances of hospitalization -- could help identify the small percentage of the population most in need of being shielded from the virus, they reported in BMJ, a medical journal.