BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) – There have been cases of coronavirus cases in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities in the U.S. in recent weeks, offering a ray of hope that health officials attribute to the start of vaccinations, a relief from the holiday wave, among other things, and better prevention.
According to the COVID Tracking Project, more than 153,000 residents of the country’s nursing and care centers have died from COVID-19, accounting for 36% of the pandemic death toll in the US. Many of the approximately 2 million people who live in such facilities remain cut off from loved ones because of the risk of infection. The virus still kills thousands every week.
However, the general trend for long-term residents is improving, with fewer new cases registered and fewer facilities reporting outbreaks. Coupled with better figures for the country in general, it is cause for optimism, even if it is too early to declare victory.
“We absolutely think there is hope and that there is light at the end of the tunnel,” said Marty Wright, head of a West Virginia nursing home trade group.
Nursing homes have been a priority since vaccinations began in mid-December, and the federal government says 1.5 million long-term care residents have already received at least a starting dose.
Researchers and industry leaders say they are seeing marked improvements after months when some nursing homes lost dozens of residents to the disease and had to keep others in semi-isolation for protection. About 2,000 nursing homes are now virus-free, or about 13% nationally, according to an industry group, 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 in long-term care centers, fewer outbreaks occur and fewer residents require hospitalization, said Wright, CEO of the West Virginia Health Care Association . Pennsylvania-based Genesis HealthCare, which operates more than 325 nursing, residential or senior housing facilities 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 association, said on Thursday that data from about 800 nursing homes where the first vaccine doses were administered in late December showed promising results. Cases among residents decreased by 48% in homes where vaccinations had taken place, compared to a decrease of 21% in non-vaccinated neighborhood facilities. Meanwhile, the number of cases among workers fell by 33% in vaccinated homes, compared to 18% in unvaccinated settings.
After peaking at nearly 73,600 new weekly cases in long-term care facilities across the country in mid-December, the number had dropped 31% by the end of January to about 50,000 new cases per week, an Associated Press analysis found. Still, the most recent weekly count is 18% higher than the seven-day period ending Thanksgiving, when the numbers started to climb.
The weekly number of new deaths remains stubbornly high, with a record of 7,042 recorded during the seven-day period ending January 14 and only slightly declining since then. In comparison, for the seven days ending Thanksgiving, 3,181 deaths were recorded. Even more encouragingly, the COVID tracking project found that only 251 facilities reported new outbreaks recently, compared to 1,410 in early January.
Dr. David Gifford, the national association’s chief medical officer, said the numbers show signs of hope as they indicate vaccines could reduce the spread of COVID-19, a finding that has not been shown in trials.
“If verified with additional data, this could accelerate the reopening of long-term care facilities for visitors, which is essential for the health and well-being of residents,” he said in a statement.
The opportunity to visit left Mark Badger and his 91-year-old father Billy, who are in a nursing home in Anchorage, Alaska, in tears. It was the first personal visit in a year. Mark Badger’s mother had passed away at home a year ago.
“This is a time when he really needs us,” said Mark Badger. “He’s been lonely.”
Experts warn that only part of the improvement can be linked to vaccines.
Studies from Israel show that it takes a patient about 12 days for the first of the Pfizer or Moderna two-dose vaccines to provide meaningful protection, said Roni Rosenfeld, a computational epidemiologist who heads Carnegie Mellon University’s division of Machine Learning. Despite all residents and employees of the long-term care facility who received at least one dose of the vaccine, those doses haven’t had enough time to work for most people, he said this week.
“The vaccine probably contributed, but very, very little,” said Rosenfeld.
Health officials say other factors likely play a bigger role, including an ebb in the wave after the holidays, an increasing number of people who are immune from having the disease, changes in behavior and more protective gear. And they warn that threats still lurk, including more contagious strains of the virus and the reluctance of many nursing home workers to get vaccinated.
At the Arbor Springs Health and Rehabilitation Center in Opelika, Alabama, where 19 patients died from COVID-19 early in the pandemic, none of the approximately 115 patients are now infected, said Mark Traylor, head of the facility’s parent company, Traylor- Porter Healthcare. .
‘We take care of each other here. We take care of each other, ”resident Susan McEachern said Wednesday as she and a friend – both wearing masks – sat in a common area that 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 is the difference between “looking down a cliff” during those early weeks of the crisis and visitors who now return on a limited basis. be allowed to.
“We will be in top shape when we vaccinate everyone,” said Traylor.
PruittHealth, which operates about 100 nursing homes in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida, has 29 locations that are free of COVID-19, and fewer patients have tested positive in recent weeks, CEO Neil Pruitt said.
While more than 70% of PruittHealth’s eligible nursing home residents have been immunized, only 27% of workers have agreed to get vaccinated, Pruitt said. Without a big improvement in that employee figure, he’s worried that cases could spike again once people start traveling during 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.