Hope growing as cases decline at long-term care facilities
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Coronavirus cases have dropped at U.S. nursing homes and other long-term care facilities over the past few weeks, offering a glimmer of hope that health officials attribute to the start of vaccinations, an easing of the post-holiday surge and better prevention, among other reasons.
More than 153,000 residents of the country’s nursing homes and assisted living centers have died of COVID-19, accounting for 36 percent of the U.S. pandemic death toll, according to the COVID Tracking Project. Many of the roughly 2 million people who live at such facilities remain cut off from loved ones because of the risk of infection. The virus still kills thousands of them weekly.
The overall trend for longterm care residents is improving, though, with fewer new cases recorded and fewer facilities reporting outbreaks. Coupled with better figures for the country overall, it’s cause for optimism even if it’s too early to declare victory.
“We definitely think there’s hope and there’s light at the end of the tunnel,” said Marty Wright, who heads a nursing home trade group in West Virginia.
Nursing homes have been a priority since vaccinations began in mid-December, and the federal government says 1.5 million long-term care residents have already received at least an initial dose.
Researchers and industry leaders say they are seeing marked improvements after months in which some nursing homes lost dozens of residents to the disease and had to keep others in semi-isolation for protection. Some 2,000 nursing homes are now virus-free, or about 13 percent nationally, according to an industry group, and many are dealing with far fewer cases than before.
The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living, an industry trade organization, said Thursday that data from about 800 nursing homes where initial vaccine doses were administered in late December offered promising results. Cases among residents fell by 48 percent at homes where immunizations had occurred, compared with a 21 percent decline at non-vaccinated facilities nearby. Meanwhile, cases among employees dropped by 33 percent at vaccinated homes, compared with 18 percent at non-vaccinated facilities.
After reaching a high of almost 73,600 new weekly cases in long-term care facilities nationwide in mid-December, the number was down 31 percent by late January, to about 50,000 new cases per week, an Associated Press analysis found. Still, the most recent weekly count is 18 percent higher than the seven-day period that ended on Thanksgiving, when numbers started climbing.
The weekly count of new deaths remains stubbornly high, with a record 7,042 recorded during the seven-day span that ended Jan. 14 and only a slight decline since. By comparison, for the seven days that ended on Thanksgiving, 3,181 deaths were recorded. More encouragingly, the COVID Tracking Project found that only 251 facilities reported new outbreaks recently, compared with 1,410 in early January.
Dr. David Gifford, chief medical officer for the national association, said the numbers show signs for hope since they indicate vaccines might decrease the virus’ spread, a finding not shown in trials.
“If verified with additional data, this could expedite the reopening of long-term care facilities to visitors, which is vital to residents’ health and well-being,” he said in a statement.
At Arbor Springs Health and Rehabilitation Center in Opelika, Ala., where 19 patients died of COVID-19 early in the pandemic, none of the roughly 115 patients is infected now, said Mark Traylor, who heads the facility’s parent company, Traylor-Porter Healthcare.
“We look after each other in here. We take care of each other,” resident Susan McEachern said Wednesday as she and a friend — both wearing masks — sat in a communal room that was recently reopened because many residents had been vaccinated.
“We’re going to be in great shape once we get everybody vaccinated,” Traylor said.