Deadly COVID outbreak at nursing home may be isolated, data shows
A deadly outbreak of COVID-19 breakthrough cases at a Connecticut nursing home appears to be an isolated issue, the latest state data shows, with overall infections and deaths in long-term care facilities declining from a summer spike.
This rash of infections comes amid a broader effort to ease restrictions on nursing facilities that were once closed off to the outside to stem a pandemic that disproportionately impacted older individuals.
Last week, updated guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services urged nursing facilities to open their doors broadly to visitors. Connecticut was quick to put restrictions in place to safeguard these vulnerable residents, but has since eased those limitations.
The Geer Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Canaan has seen eight deaths and 89 infections in about six weeks, according to state records and a notice from facility officials. All of the deaths involved residents, along with about two-thirds of the infections.
Kevin O’Connell, the facility’s chief executive, said 87 of the 89 individuals were vaccinated. The facility was in the process of scheduling booster doses for its residents when the new infections started, he added.
“We had early success getting staff and residents vaccinated. We got up to 95 percent pretty quickly,” O’Connell said Monday.
He went on to say that this rash of new infections “speaks more to waning immunity.” The facility is now required to wait 14 days after the outbreak has ended to start administering booster doses.
“The Connecticut Department of Public Health is monitoring and providing on-site consultation at this facility,” DPH spokesperson Christopher Boyle said.
Overall, cases have been dropping in nursing homes since late August, a biweekly report from the state shows. The latest report, issued last Thursday, shows 45 new cases and three deaths among nursing home residents and 54 cases among staff in a two-week period ending on Sept. 12. In the final two weeks of August, 111 cases and 16 deaths were reported among nursing home residents and 94 cases were reported among staff.
The rise in cases in nursing homes coincided with an increase in infections statewide spurred by the highly transmissible delta variant, which quickly became the dominant strain of COVID-19 in July and August.
Of the more than 200 nursing home facilities in Connecticut, the vast majority have reported no new cases or deaths in recent weeks, according to the state reports.
Through the weekend, Connecticut reported 2,179 new COVID cases among 75,526 tests for a positivity rate of 2.89 percent. Hospitalizations increased a net of 13 patients for a total of 238.
From the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, nursing homes were among the hardest hit by COVID-19. In an effort to stem new infections, Connecticut’s top officials prioritized vaccinating residents in long-term care facilities early in the vaccine program.
Before widespread vaccination efforts, a majority of the deaths from COVID-19 reported in Connecticut were among nursing home residents. But the state saw success with the vaccine, and data shows that infections and deaths quickly dropped.
According to the latest state report, an average of 91 percent of nursing home residents are vaccinated and 95 percent of nursing home staff have gotten the vaccine.
But it’s been more than 10 months since the vaccine program started, and some studies have shown that the immunity declines over time. Given the potential for decreased immunity, federal regulators approved booster doses for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in late August and the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines last month.
The number of fully vaccinated Connecticut residents who have received booster doses has been increasing significantly in recent weeks with all three vaccines authorized for use and the approval of a “mix-and-match” approach where an individual can get a different brand vaccine booster from the one they initially received.
As of Sunday, nearly 430,000 booster doses of the vaccines have been administered in Connecticut, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, with about 83,000 doses given in the past week.
Neither the state nor the CDC break down booster numbers among certain groups, like long-term care facility residents. But the CDC said 44 percent of the fully vaccinated residents age 65 and older have received a booster shot.
“It’s important to note that as we move closer to the winter season and the holidays, there is no better time to get a booster. Mixing and matching vaccines is OK for boosters — family members of residents in long-term care facilities should also strongly encourage their loved ones being care for in these facilities to get to a booster vaccine,” Boyle said.