Melissa Bailey and Shoshana Dubnow report today that Covid cases have dropped by more than 80% among staff and residents of nursing homes in the US:
Joan Phillips, a licensed nursing assistant in a Florida nursing home, loved her job but dreaded the danger of going to work during the pandemic. When vaccines became available in December, she took the opportunity to get one.
Months later, the danger seems to have faded. After the introduction of Covid vaccines, the number of new Covid cases among nursing home workers fell 83% – from 28,802 for the week ending December 20 to 4,764 for the week ending February 14, data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
New Covid-19 infections among nursing home residents declined even more over that time, by 89%, compared to 58% among the general public, data from CMS and Johns Hopkins University show.
These numbers suggest that “the vaccine appears to have a dramatic effect in reducing cases, which is extremely encouraging,” said Beth Martino, spokesperson for the American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living, an industry group.
“It’s a great relief to me,” said Phillips, who works at the North Beach Rehabilitation Center outside of Miami. Now, she said, she urges reluctant colleagues and anyone who can “go out and take the vaccination.”
After a brutal year in which the pandemic killed half a million Americans, despite unprecedented measures to contain its spread – including mask wearing, physical distance, school closures, and economic shutdown – the vaccines give hope to an end. sight is.
National figures on infections from healthcare providers in other settings are difficult to obtain. Research in other countries suggests that vaccines have greatly reduced the infection. A study of government-funded hospitals in England indicated that a first dose was 72% effective in preventing Covid-19 among workers after 21 days and 86% was effective seven days after the second shot.
Lost on the Frontline, a year-long data and reporting project by KHN and the Guardian, investigates more than 3,500 Covid deaths among U.S. health workers. The monthly number has been declining since December, but deaths often lag infections by weeks or months.
Read more here: Covid cases are more than 80% among staff and residents of nursing homes in the US.