New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
‘THIS CRISIS IS NOT OVER’
Data: Nursing home staff COVID deaths in CT higher than reported
Data released Thursday by the state shows COVID hit nursing home employees far harder in the early days of the pandemic than was originally reported.
A total of 21 nursing home workers have died of a COVID infection since the pandemic began, according to state Department of Public Health data released Thursday.
Last week, data showed that only five nursing home workers had so far died from COVID.
Rob Baril, president of SEIU 11999, a union representing many nursing home workers in Connecticut, said he expects
further revisions to push that number yet higher.
“Nursing home caregivers have sacrificed everything during the coronavirus pandemic, including paying with their own lives and the lives of their relatives,” Baril said. “Surviving union caregivers are not surprised to see that the number of dead nursing home workers from COVID-related complications is much higher than previously reported by the Department of Public Health.”
DPH spokesman Chris Boyle said the data on the 16 additional deaths emerged due to “a change on how we are now reporting the nursing home data.” He confirmed that all 16 deaths occurred between March and June 2020.
“Previously we were reporting staff and resident deaths only going back to June 2020,” he said. “Now we have a more automated process that includes the total number of deaths dating back to March 2020.”
Simultaneously, revisions in the data show 68 fewer deaths among nursing home residents than were previously reported. Last week the state reported 4,126 COVID-related deaths among nursing home residents. This week, that data has been revised down to 4,058.
Boyle attributed the change to nursing homes editing the data to correct “COVID-related deaths that didn't turn out to be COVID-related.”
Simone Bell, a nurse's aide at St. Mary's Home in West Hartford, said COVID has not abated.
“COVID is not gone.
COVID is still here, and it's getting worse,” she said. “This new COVID is worse than it was before. The symptoms are bad. You feel like you're in the Twilight Zone.”
Bell said she herself tested positive for COVID recently, which she said was “a result of me doing patient care.”
Confirmed COVID cases among nursing home residents in Connecticut have been rising, according to state data, though not as high as they had during previous waves. DPH Commissioner Manisha Juthan recently referred to the current increase in coronavirus as a “swell,” as opposed to a wave.
As of May 18, there were 252 coronavirus cases among nursing home residents, down from 308 on May 8.
The recent peak was on Jan. 16 when the state recorded 889 cases among nursing home residents. That wave was attributed to the omicron variant, whereas the current “swell” has been attributed to both omicron subvariants BA.2 and BA.2.12.1.
“I'm seeing an increase in COVID cases in the nursing home,” Bell said. COVID cases are rising every day in the facility.”
Audrey Thompson, a nurse's aide at The Villa of Stamford, said COVID has not been as bad as it was in the early days of the pandemic.
“When it just started in 2020, I don't think anybody had it under control. That was stressful for the workers,” Thompson said. “It's not as stressful as it was then.”
Though she said she believes COVID is being handled better, with vaccinations keeping the worst symptoms at bay, Thompson said staffing issues have not been resolved.
“The thing that's still present is not having enough people to do the job,” Thompson said.
Bell agreed that staffing issues have persisted, one aide responsible for as many as 28 residents.
“The staffing is horrible. We don't have too much people that want to do this job anymore,” she said. “Our job is one of the most hazardous jobs in the United States.”
Bell attributed the rise she is seeing in COVID in her facility in part to staffing issues.
“We have one aide that is taking care of both COVID and non-COVID residents,” she said. “Isn't COVID going to spread even more?”
“Let's be clear: this crisis is not over yet. Longterm care workers are still suffering in nursing homes, group homes and home care,” Baril said in a prepared statement. “This industry has been in crisis for a very long time, relying on poverty wages to provide care for our most vulnerable populations, relying on an undervalued workforce that is majority Black, Latina, and white working women.”