New AARP Analysis: Only 35% of Nursing Home Residents and 13% of Staff in Ohio Have Received COVID-19 Booster
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Only 35% of nursing home residents in Ohio and only 13% of nursing home staff had received a COVID-19 booster as of mid-november, according to the latest data from AARP’S Nursing Home COVID-19 Dashboard.
With holiday gatherings on the horizon, these numbers are a cause for concern, as more than a year and a half into the pandemic, rates of COVID19 cases in nursing homes are rising again nationally, along with increased community spread. While case rates declined slightly compared to the same time period last month, in AARP’S dashboard, the number of cases increased during the four weeks leading up to November 21.
In Ohio, resident cases remained the same at a rate of 2.2% from mid-october to mid-november. Staff cases decreased slightly from a rate of 2.8 per 100 residents to 2.5 per 100 residents during this same time period. Nursing home resident deaths from coronavirus decreased slightly from a rate of 0.26% in midoctober to 0.21% in midnovember.
“With slight improvements in Ohio metrics, COVID-19 continues to infiltrate America’s nursing homes, with more than 1,500 new nursing home resident deaths nationally for the third consecutive month,” said Holly Holtzen, Director of AARP Ohio, which serves more than 1.5 million members age 50 and older.
“Increasing vaccination rates—including boosters— among nursing home residents and staff is key to protecting our loved ones and getting the pandemic under control.”
“AARP calls on nursing homes, state and federal authorities, and others to increase access to and receipt of COVID-19 boosters for both nursing home staff and residents. As new variants emerge and vaccine immunity wanes, the low number of residents and staff who have received a booster creates an unacceptable level of risk, since the disease spreads so easily in these environments.”
“If you have a loved one in a nursing home, we urge you to ask the necessary questions about when they will get the booster and the process. We’ve created a checklist to help guide the conversation between families and nursing home staff. The guide is available on the AARP Ohio website, and since posting it more than 4,000 Ohioans have viewed or downloaded it.”
On Monday, December 20, at 1p.m., AARP Ohio hosts the directors of the Ohio Department of Health and the Ohio Department of Aging for a teletown hall on COVID19 booster shots. For more information and to submit your question for the event, visit https://vekeo.com/ aarpohio/#event-36702.
Nursing homes have been devastated during the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has swept the nation, killing more than 186,000 residents and staff of nursing homes and other longterm care facilities.
AARP Ohio is encouraged by recent decisions to disburse public funding to bolster patient care and safety for staff and residents of nursing homes but continues to advocate for more accountability and transparency to ensure funds are spent on direct patient care.
While the percentage of residents and staff who have received boosters remains low, rates of those fully vaccinated— those who have received two COVID-19 shots—continue to slowly rise as of November 21. In Ohio, about 62% of nursing home staff are fully vaccinated and 83.2% of nursing home residents.
The AARP Nursing Home COVID-19 Dashboard analyzes federally reported data in four-week periods going back to June 1, 2020. Using this data, the AARP Public Policy Institute, in collaboration with the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University in Ohio, created the dashboard to provide snapshots of the virus’ infiltration into nursing homes and impact on nursing home residents and staff, with the goal of identifying specific areas of concern at the national and state levels in a timely manner.
The full Nursing Home COVID-19 Dashboard is available at www.aarp.org/ nursinghomedashboard. For more information on how coronavirus is impacting nursing homes and AARP’S advocacy on this issue, visit www.aarp.org/nursinghomes. Medicare.gov’s Care Compare website now offers information about vaccination rates within nursing homes and how they compare to state and national averages.