Long-term care providers should be encouraged after new findings showed no strong correlation between COVID-19 vaccinations and death among residents, authorities say. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the weekend released vaccine safety data reported by healthcare providers during the first month of vaccinations (Dec. 14, 2020, through Jan. 13, 2021). 

Approximately 1 million long-term care residents reported to federal authorities as being vaccinated during that period. There were 150 reports (3 out of every 20,000 participants) suffering adverse events, ranging from serious to non-serious, and 78 deaths (fewer than 1 out of every 12,000 participants) reported.

“These initial findings should provide reassurance to health care providers and to vaccine recipients and promote confidence in the safety of COVID-19 vaccines,” report authors concluded. 

About 13.7 million vaccine doses were administered overall during the study period. There were just short of 7,000 reports of adverse events after vaccinations (a little more than 1 out of every 2,000). Fewer than 650 of those were classified as serious, with the most common symptoms reported being headache, fatigue, and dizziness. A total of 113 deaths were reported (about 1 out of every 115,000 participants).

The CDC noted that causes of deaths among those residents were consistent with expected all-cause mortality among the group and did not “indicate any unexpected pattern that might suggest a causal relationship with vaccination.”  

Full findings are available here.