Nursing homes far outpace U.S. in COVID declines,
Throughout the pandemic, there has been perhaps nowhere more dangerous than a nursing home. The coronavirus has raced through some 31,000 longterm care facilities in the United States, killing more than 163,000 residents and employees and accounting for more than one-third of all virus deaths since the late spring.
But for the first time since the U.S. outbreak began roughly a year ago — at a nursing care center in Kirkland, Washington — the threat inside nursing homes may have finally reached a turning point.
Since the arrival of vaccines, which were prioritized to long-term care facilities starting in late December, new cases and deaths in nurs- ing homes, a large subset of long-term care facilities, have fallen steeply, outpacing national declines, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data. The turn- around is an encouraging sign for vaccine effectiveness and offers an early glimpse at what
be in store for the rest of the country as more and more people get vaccinated.
From late December to early February, new cases among nursing home residents fell by more than 80%, nearly double the rate of improvement in the general population. The trend- line for deaths was even more striking: Even as fatalities spiked overall this winter, deaths inside the facilities have fallen, decreasing by more than 65%.
“I’m almost at a loss for words at how amazing it is and how exciting,” said Dr. David Gifford, chief medical officer for the American Health Care Association, which represents thousands of long-term care facilities across the country.
“If we are seeing a robust response with this vaccine with the elderly with a highly contagious disease,” he said, “I think that’s a great sign for the rest of the population.”
Experts attribute the improvements in large part to the distribution of vaccines. About 4.5 million residents and employees in long-term care facilities have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including about 2.1 million who have been fully vaccinated.
In one promising sign, the American Health Care Asso- ciation, the industry group, looked at nearly 800 nurs- ing homes that received early doses of the vaccine in December and compared caseloads with facilities in the same counties that had not yet held a vaccine clinic. The nursing homes that got the earlier vaccine saw a 48% decline in cases among residents, compared with 21% among nearby nursing homes.
In some nursing homes, 4 out of 5 residents or more have now been vaccinated. Some states, such as Connecticut and West Virginia, have reported finishing vaccinations at all nursing homes, but many employees and a smaller share of residents nationally have declined to get the shot.
At Valley Senior Living in Grand Forks, North Dakota, more than 90% of residents agreed to be vaccinated. The high rate of uptake, combined with low levels of community transmission, has meant that life is slowly inching back to normal there.