COVID nursing home cases fall

Two weeks after Connecticut completed its first round of vaccinations at nursing homes, newly reported cases of COVID-19 there have declined, but a state official said it’s too early to draw a conclusion.

The state’s nursing homes reported 238 new cases of the virus in residents this week, down 23 percent from the week before, and a little more than half the 483 cases reported Jan. 7.

That week, Gov. Ned Lamont appeared in front of LiveWell, a long-term care facility in Plantsville, to announce the state had completed its first round of vaccinations at nursing homes.

According to Lamont, that made Connecticut the first state in the country to complete its vaccine clinics at nursing homes. It came just three weeks after vaccinations began at nursing homes, starting with The Reservoir in West Hartford.

But Josh Geballe, Lamont’s chief operating officer and frequent data expert at his coronavirus press conferences, said Thursday the “time lag’ involved in vaccinations and testing mean it’s unlikely the decline is the result of the vaccine.

“I think maybe we’re starting to see a little bit of a benefit from the vaccinations starting to creep in,” said Geballe.

“But the reality is when you do the math from when that first set of doses was administered in those first nursing homes, starting around Dec. 21, you go 10 to 14 days after that when you start to get some protection from the vaccine, then potentially being tested, let’s say the week after that, then those test results starting to show up in the data— the time lag is considerable,” he explained.

Geballe credited the work inside nursing homes to prevent the virus from spreading, including inspections of nursing homes by staff from the Department of Public Health, who have been backed up by National Guard personnel.

The number of new COVID-19 cases among nursing home staff also fell, with 190 new cases reported this week compared with 362 on Jan. 7. Lamont has raised concern about hesitancy among nursing staff to take the vaccine, while he has said the residents have overwhelmingly agreed to get the shot. Nursing home staff were offered the vaccine alongside residents in clinics run by staff from CVS and Walgreens.

Deaths of nursing home residents attributed to the virus have also decreased slightly from two weeks ago, down from 111 on Jan. 7 to 92 this week, but also rose slightly from the number of deaths reported last week.

H John Voorhees III / Hearst Connecticut Media Dr. Richard Feifer, chief medical officer of The Reservoir in West Hartford, was the first person to receive the COVID-19 vaccination at a press conference Dec. 18 held by Gov. Ned Lamont at the nursing home to announce the launch of Connecticut’s nursing home COVID-19 vaccination program.