Nursing home COVID-19 cases increase as virus spreads in the community

Cases of COVID-19 in state nursing homes more than doubled in the past week as state officials scrambled to put laws in place that will protect the vulnerable populations in those facilities during the current and future pandemics.

The latest data from the state Department of Public Health indicates that during the week ending Nov. 10, nursing homes in the state had 18,100 residents, 254 of whom had tested positive for the virus, with 31 deaths. The previous week’s report showed 113 nursing home residents with COVID-19 and 22 deaths. Assisted living facilities had 200 cases for the week ending Nov. 10 compared to 117 the previous week. No deaths were reported.

Southeastern Connecticut nursing homes showed no major outbreaks of the virus in the most recent report. No new cases or deaths were reported at the Fairview Rehabilitation & Skilled Nursing Care facility in Groton, which had struggled recently with an outbreak of the virus resulting in seven deaths.

The state’s nursing homes, like those across the nation, were hard hit during the early months of the pandemic, reporting 8,777 cases of the virus and 2,849 deaths through July 21. From July 22 to Nov. 10, there have been a total of 784 cases and 130 deaths.

The number of cases declined as the facilities, with help from the state and federal governments, reviewed their infection control protocols, obtained adequate supplies of personal protective equipment, implemented testing routines and began grouping together, or cohorting, residents who were positive and negative. The state also received funding for weekly testing of nursing home staff who haven’t tested positive within the past 90 days. The staff testing is expected to continue at least through the end of the year.

Gov. Ned Lamont commissioned an independent study of nursing home performance by the Princeton, N. J.- based Mathematica Policy Research group, which issued a report on Sept. 30 outlining 23 shortterm steps that could be taken by the state to mitigate the spread of the virus and 22 long-term recommendations to prepare for future disease outbreaks in long- term care facilities.

State agencies have implemented some of the suggestions, and during the past two weeks, a newly formed Nursing Home and Assisted Living Oversight Working Group of legislators, executive branch officials and others have met twice as the group formulates a legislative response to the crisis. The working group will recommend proposed legislation to the General Assembly during the session that begins in January 2021.

State Sen. Cathy Osten, D- Sprague, is a co- chair of the working group. She said during the group’s meeting this past Thursday that it’s important to put into law the Mathematica recommendations so that long-term care facilities can be better prepared for future pandemics.

“We don’t want to lose sight of the fact that we were not prepared for this pandemic, because we didn’t know it was going to happen,” Osten said. “My goal is that the next group of legislators and executive branch will have an outline to work with.”

The committee will meet again, via Zoom, on Thursday at 10 a.m. The meeting will be broadcast on CT-N.