Ray of hope for nursing homes
State official: Seniors in facilities may have reached herd immunity
Nursing homes in Connecticut may have reached the coronavirus herd immunity threshold, a top state official said Saturday.
Vaccines have been administered to enough nursing home residents in the state to potentially stop the transmission of the coronavirus among those residents, according to Connecticut’s chief operating officer, Josh Geballe.
Nursing homes in the state are reporting that 90 to 100 percent of residents have received at least the first of two shots of the vaccine to protect against COVID-19, according to Geballe, and the “vast majority” have received both shots.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine “was 95 percent effective at preventing laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 illness in people without evidence of previous infection” in clinical trials.
Because of nursing home turnover, “we actually have more
residents who have gotten their first dose than we have nursing home residents,” Geballe said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said recently that herd immunity would be achieved when about 75 percent of the population had been vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Though there is some turnover in Connecticut nursing homes, Geballe said the widespread administration of vaccines, as well as continued infection control measures, has helped the congregate care facilities reach that threshold.
The data backs up that assertion. The state announced on Jan. 8 that every nursing home resident had received at least their first vaccine dose.
Since then, the rate of new coronavirus cases at state nursing homes has dropped precipitously.
“In the last three weeks, the number of weekly cases in nursing homes has declined by 66 percent, Geballe said. “You get your first vaccination, you start to get some protection 10 to 14 days afterwards.”
Connecticut nursing homes bore the brunt of the pandemic early on. In the spring, deaths from the coronavirus in longterm care facilities comprised 70 percent or more of the total COVID-19 deaths recorded in Connecticut.
The amount of vaccine doses allocated to nursing homes is determined by Operation Warp Speed’s long-term care partnership.
But the state has now stopped allocating more vaccine doses to nursing homes. Vaccine distribution to nursing homes is administered by CVS and Walgreens through the long-term care partnership, and Geballe said they are working through their existing supply.
Doses that had been earmarked for nursing homes are being reallocated to hospitals and retail sites, Geballe said.
The rate of vaccination among nursing home employees is not as good.
“Now over 60 percent of nursing home staff have gotten their first dose,” Geballe said, though it is increasing. “What we’re seeing is what we had hoped to see. When we come back for the second dose clinics, more of the staff that passed the first time around are now agreeing to get vaccinated.”
The state at large has also seen improvement, with the number of positive coronavirus tests staying below 4 percent for most of the week.
But Geballe said it’s too soon to suggest that Connecticut’s low infection rates are a result of the vaccine. As of Friday, 9.2 percent of the state as a whole had received at least one vaccine dose.
“It’s too early to expect to see broad-spread benefit of the vaccine across the state,” he said.
Connecticut is in Phase 1b of its vaccine rollout plan, with individuals ages 75 years and older eligible to be vaccinated.
About 35 percent of Connecticut residents ages 75 and over have so far been vaccinated, Geballe said, with people ages 65 and over expected to be eligible within two weeks.
Front-line essential workers are expected to be eligible in March. Phase 1c has no timeline yet, though it’s expected sometime in the spring.
That deliberate rollout is intentional, Geballe said, and the success in Connecticut’s nursing homes is an indication that it’s effective.
“It’s such great news,” he said.