BIRMINGHAM, Ala (AP) – Coronavirus cases have been reported at US nursing homes and other long-term care facilities in recent weeks, offering some hope given by health officials at the start of vaccinations, a relief from the post-holiday boom and better prevention, among others.
More than 153,000 residents of the country’s nursing homes and help centers have died from COVID-19, which according to the COVID Tracking Project accounts for 36% of the US death toll in pandemics. Many of the approximately 2 million people living in such facilities remain cut off from their loved ones due to the risk of infection. The virus still kills thousands of them weekly.
However, the overall trend for long-term caregivers is improving, with fewer new cases and fewer facilities reporting outbreaks. Coupled with better figures for the country as a whole, it is cause for optimism, even if it is too early to declare victory.
“We definitely think there’s hope and there’s light at the end of the tunnel,” said Marty Wright, who heads a nursing home group in West Virginia.
Nursing homes have been a priority since vaccinations began in mid-December, and the federal government says 1.5 million residents for long-term care have already received at least an initial dose.
Researchers and industry leaders say they are seeing noticeable improvements after months in which some nursing homes lost dozens of residents to the disease and others had to be kept in semi-isolation for protection. About 2,000 nursing homes, according to one industry group, are now virus-free, or about 13% nationally, and many are dealing with far fewer cases than before.
In West Virginia, where about 30% of the state’s approximately 2,080 COVID-19 deaths occurred at long-term care centers, fewer outbreaks occur and fewer residents need hospitalization, said Wright, chief executive of the West Virginia Health Care Association. . Genesis HealthCare in Pennsylvania, which operates more than 325 nursing homes, relief facilities or senior living communities in 24 states, has seen similar improvements, spokeswoman Lori Mayer said.
The American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living, an industry organization in the industry, said Thursday that data from about 800 nursing homes where initial vaccine doses were administered at the end of December yielded promising results. The number of cases among residents fell by 48% at vaccinated homes, compared with a 21% decrease in non-vaccinated facilities in the area. Meanwhile, cases among employees fell by 33% at vaccinated homes, compared to 18% at non-vaccinated facilities.
After peaking at nearly 73,600 new weekly cases in long-term care facilities nationwide in December, the number was 31% lower by the end of January, to about 50,000 new cases per week, an Associated Press analysis found. Yet the latest weekly score is 18% higher than the seven-day period that ended on Thanksgiving, when numbers began to climb.
The weekly count of new deaths remains stubbornly high, with a record 7,042 ending during the seven days of January 14 and since then only a slight decrease. By comparison, for the seven days that ended on Thanksgiving, 3,181 deaths were recorded. More encouragingly, the COVID tracking project found that only 251 facilities recently reported new outbreaks, compared to 1,410 in early January.
Dr David Gifford, chief medical officer of the national association, said the numbers showed signs of hope because they indicated vaccinations that could reduce the spread of COVID-19, a finding that has not been shown in trials.
“If confirmed with additional data, it could accelerate the reopening of long-term visitor facilities, which are essential for residents’ health and well-being,” he said in a statement.
The visiting ability left Mark Badger and his 91-year-old father Billy, who was in a nursing home in Anchorage, Alaska, in tears. It was the first face-to-face visit in a year. Mark Badger’s mother died in the home a year ago.
“This is a time when he really needs us,” Mark Badger said. “He was lonely.”
Experts warn that only the improvement can be linked to vaccines.
Studies from Israel have shown that the patient takes about twelve days before the first of two doses of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines provides meaningful protection, said Roni Rosenfeld, a computational epidemiologist who heads the Machine Machine Department. the Carnegie Mellon University, said. Despite all the long-term care institutions and employees who received at least one dose vaccine, the doses did not have enough time to work for most people, he said this week.
“The vaccine probably contributed, but very, very little,” Rosenfeld said.
Health officials believe other factors are likely to play a bigger role, including a decline in the recovery after the holidays, an increasing number of people who are immune because they had the disease, behavioral changes and more protective equipment. And they warn that there are still threats lurking, including more contagious strains of the virus and a reluctance by many nursing home workers to be vaccinated.
At the Arbor Springs Health and Rehabilitation Center in Opelika, Alabama, where 19 patients died of COVID-19 early in the pandemic, none of the approximately 115 patients are now infected, says Mark Traylor, who heads the parent company of the facility, Traylor-Porter Healthcare. .
‘We’re looking at each other in here. We take care of each other, ”Susan McEachern, a resident, said on Wednesday when she and a friend – both wearing masks – were sitting in a common room that had recently reopened because many residents had been vaccinated.
Traylor said a better understanding of how to prevent the spread of the virus and how to treat COVID-19 was the difference between ‘looking at an abyss’ during the first weeks of the crisis and visitors now on a limited base is allowed.
“We will be in good shape as soon as we are all vaccinated,” Traylor said.
PruittHealth, which operates about 100 nursing homes in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida, has 29 sites free of COVID-19 and fewer patients have tested positive in recent weeks, said CEO Neil Pruitt.
Although more than 70% of eligible PruittHealth residents were vaccinated, only 27% of employees agreed to be vaccinated, Pruitt said. Without a major improvement in the employee, he is concerned that business may increase again once people start traveling over the spring break.
“I’m not confident at the moment,” he said.
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Associated Press Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson in Washington State; Adrain Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska; data journalist Nicky Forster; and photographer Julie Bennett in Opelika contributed to this report.