A new report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services reveals that nursing homes continue to fall behind on recommended COVID-19 booster vaccinations — and that includes staff and residents.
The report was compiled using data submitted to the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) Long Term Care Facility (LTCF) COVID-19 Module: Surveillance Reporting Pathways and COVID-19 Vaccinations. The data, submitted as of the week ending Feb. 5, show that although 85.6% of nursing home residents across the U.S. received their primary COVID vaccines, just 53.2% are up-to-date with the recommended follow-up doses and boosters.
Long-term care staff didn’t do much better, according to the report. CMS reveals that 86.2% of staff at United States nursing homes were in compliance with initial COVID vaccination requirements, but just 22.5% received follow-up and booster doses.
The report goes on to reveal that there have been about 1.5 million confirmed COVID-19 infections among nursing home residents since the start of the pandemic, with more than 164,000 residents dying from their infection. Another 1.5 million nursing home staff have had confirmed cases of COVID, with nearly 3,000 dying since the start of the pandemic.
Xavier Becerra, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, warned providers last month that they must continue to stress the importance of vaccinations to residents as illness and death among older adults persists.
Although vaccination is voluntary, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that everyone who lives or works in a long-term care facility and is eligible for vaccination stay up-to-date on any boosters that are developed.
CMS tracks vaccination rates among staff and residents at the individual long-term care facility level and offers a downloadable spreadsheet for workers, patients and families to check compliance at the facility level.
The CDC continuously tracks COVID-19 infection and vaccination rates, and updates the databases tracking long-term care staff and resident compliance each week, according to CMS.
