NEW YORK Jan 16 (BUS): COVID-19 cases are up again in nursing homes in the US due to the Omicron wave, and deaths are up, too, leading to new restrictions on family visits and a renewed push to get more residents and staff. The Associated Press reported that members were vaccinated and boosted.
Nursing homes were the deadly epicenter of the pandemic early on, before a vaccine allowed many of them to reopen to visitors last year. But the highly contagious variant has set them back.
Nursing homes reported about 32,000 cases of COVID-19 among residents in the week ending January 9, an increase of nearly seven times from the previous month, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A total of 645 COVID-19-related deaths were recorded in the population during the same week, an increase of 47% over the previous period. And there are concerns that deaths could rise much more before Omicron passes.
Despite the rising numbers, the situation is not as dire as it was in December 2020, when the number of deaths in nursing homes per week exceeded about 6,200. Experts attribute the now high vaccination rates among nursing home residents: about 87% are fully vaccinated, according to data Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
COVID-19 shots and boosters offer powerful protection against severe illness, hospitalization, and death, but sick and elderly people are uniquely vulnerable to the virus.
Nursing home officials say they are responding to the outbreak by limiting visitors to common areas rather than allowing them into residents’ rooms, and by reinstating social distancing.
Some states, like New York, have taken their own measures, such as requiring proof of visitors testing negative and providing everyone with surgical masks.
Nursing homes are also increasing the number of vaccinations, especially for prevention. Sixty-three percent of nursing home residents nationwide received an extra dose.
Boost numbers are much worse for employees. About 83% were fully vaccinated, but only 29% received an extra dose.
Nursing homes have held vaccination clinics and city council meetings to stress the importance of injections.
They also got another tool to boost vaccinations when the US Supreme Court upheld the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for most US health care workers.
About 57,200 nursing home workers — the highest number recorded during the pandemic — contracted the virus in the week to January 9, a more than tenfold increase from the previous month, according to the CDC.
Sharon Wheeler was shocked to learn that her 88-year-old father, who has dementia, recently contracted COVID-19 at a nursing home in Naperville, Illinois. She said she hopes the fact that he’s been fully vaccinated and boosted will help him get through.
She said she suspected visitors and residents coming and going on holidays brought COVID-19 indoors. Wheeler was not allowed to see her father, but staff told her he had mild symptoms.
“I worked really hard to make sure he never got (COVID-19), because I was so terrified,” she said. “He’s an old man, and I don’t want to lose him that way.”
Vaccines are just one of many tools that should be used to defend older adults against omicrons, said Eric Vegel-Ding, an epidemiologist and senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists. He also recommended testing visitors and mandatory boosters and using medical masks such as N95s and high-efficiency air filters.
“We need to build Fort Knox around protecting nursing homes, but we’re not doing that right now, which is why cases are rising,” Vigel Ding said Thursday. “We’re going to have massive numbers of hospitalizations and deaths.”
The virus dealt a devastating blow in late November to Todd Fernald’s New Hampshire nursing home called Webster at Rye, where 100% of residents and staff were vaccinated — but not boosted.
“COVID broke through this building in 10 seconds,” Fernald said, recalling how on the day additional shots were to be fired, an outbreak eventually killed six residents and injured dozens more and injured 20 employees.
Since then, almost all residents have been reinforced, and employees are getting their third shot.
“I only lost one employee who didn’t want to be vaccinated and chose to quit his job,” Fernald said. “I have more and more people every week who I see are being boosted and give me their booster cards.”
Making sure facilities have supplies like tests is also critical, said Lisa Sanders of LeadingAge, an association of nonprofit aging providers, including nursing homes.
“Older adults and the people who care for them should be prioritized for support and supplies when they are available,” Sanders said.
AOQ