Nursing home deaths spike
Now represent more than half of all virus fatalities in the state
Deaths related to COVID-19 at Connecticut nursing homes now account for more than half of all coronavirus deaths in the state, according to new public health data released Thursday night.
The data show a massive spike in the number of deaths of nursing home patients to 1,249 — an almost 63% increase since the state’s last report on nursing home deaths at the end of last week.
The data include both “laboratory confirmed” deaths, cases where a positive COVID-19 test was obtained, and “probable” deaths, those attributed to COVID-19 but had no test conducted.
Those deaths now make up 55% of the total 2,257 COVID-19 associated deaths reported statewide as of Thursday.
Gov. Ned Lamont briefly acknowledged the growing nursing home death toll in his daily briefing Thursday afternoon, noting that fatalities continue to rise “increasingly in the nursing homes, I might say. That’s something we have to think about seriously.”
More than 4,800 nursing home patients have tested positive for the virus, nearly a quarter of the state’s nursing home capacity, the data show.
The state also released publicly, for the first time, data that show 558 residents of assisted
living facilities have tested positive for the virus and another 140 are suspected to have COVID-19, but have not formally tested positive.
The state did not provide data on how many assisted living residents have died, however, and the list appears to be incomplete based on what some facilities and towns already have reported publicly.
A Ridgefield facility owned by Benchmark Senior Living, for example, does not appear in the state’s nursing home and assisted living facility reporting but officials already have said there have been 22 deaths at that location alone, including some of the first in the state in early March. Overall, Benchmark
has had 56 deaths in its Connecticut facilities.
The highest reported totals in the data are at Kimberly Hall North in Windsor, where the state reports 13 confirmed COVID-19 associated deaths and another 26 probable coronavirus deaths.
Yet death certificates reviewed by the Courant show at least 43 people have died of complications from COVID-19 at that facility, making it one of the hardest hit long-term care facilities in the country.
Frustrated state officials have been unable to match deaths reported by some facilities with numbers they have received from either the state medical examiner or death certificates and last week Lamont ordered nursing homes to provide daily status reports, including deaths, to a DPH electronic database. If nursing homes fail to comply with the mandatory reporting requirements, they face a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per violation.
But even with discrepancies, the data released Thursday clearly show massive increases in deaths and cases reported at nursing homes across the state.
Riverside Health & Rehabilitation Center in East Hartford has had 24 laboratory confirmed coronavirus deaths and another 15 deaths listed as probable, according to the data.
At least another 37 patients at Abbott Terrace Health Center in Waterbury and 28 patients at Sheridan Woods Health Care Center in Bristol have died of the virus, according to the data. At least 27 have died at Litchfield Woods in Torrington.
Four nursing homes in Shelton have been hit especially hard and have reported 78 total lab confirmed or probable coronavirus deaths as of Thursday, according to the data.
Earlier this week in response to the growing crisis, the state announced that about 40 members of the National Guard, including nurses, paramedics, EMTs and sanitarians, will be paired with state Department
of Public Health investigators to help them finish the governor’s order to have a physical inspection of all the 215 nursing homes and assisted living facilities in the state.
Once the inspections are done, the National Guard will help investigate any complaints that come in and also will make unannounced visits to nursing homes to check that there are enough employees on duty and that everyone is wearing the proper protective gear.
DPH also asked the CDC to send personnel and a small team of about five is expected to arrive by Tuesday to assist DPH officials, Harris said.
Josh Geballe, chief operating officer for Lamont, said the CDC deployed teams to several states to assist with the nursing home crisis. The increased staffing will bolster the number of inspections the state can do inside nursing homes, Geballe said.
In an effort to deal with the large number of longterm care patients infected with the virus, DPH is establishing COVID-19 recovery facilities to care for nursing home patients who are leaving the hospital but still need treatment.
DPH hopes to add more than 1,000 beds to care for nursing home patients, freeing up hospital beds to handle an expected surge of patients over the next few weeks.
Three facilities are already open and accepting patients. About 125 patients have gone to facilities in Bridgeport, Sharon and Torrington. The first five patients have already been discharged from the Sharon Health Care Center — the first facility to open.