COVID-19 cases are rising in long-term care facilities across a wide swath of the country — and climbing at a much faster rate in hotspot states than others, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report released Tuesday.

The report’s author noted in a tweet that “rising cases in young people across the U.S. are bleeding into LTC facilities.”

Long-term care cases in hotspot states increased at more than four times the rate as non-hotspot states over a 14-day period. The jump was 18% in the 23 hotspot states, compared to 4% in 12 non-hotspot states. Texas and Florida had the biggest case-rate increase, approximately 50% between June 24 and July 9. The analysis included data from 35 states that reported LTC COVID-19 cases. 

How much the virus saturates the nearby community has the biggest effect on long-term care facilities, but another key contributing factor may be a shortage of resources, Kaiser reported. Nearly 1 in 3 nursing homes report a shortage of staffing, personal protective equipment or both. 

At the end of June, nearly 3,000 nursing homes (almost 1 in 5) conveyed a shortage of nursing staff, clinical personnel, aides or other staff. In addition, nearly 2,700 (almost 1 in 6) nursing homes said they were dealing with a shortage of PPE supplies, which includes N95 masks, surgical masks, eye protection, gowns, gloves and hand sanitizer. Also, 4,800 nursing homes (nearly 1 in 3) reported a staffing shortage or PPE shortage.

McKnight’s reported earlier this week that the number of coronavirus cases in Texas nursing homes had soared by 60% since the beginning of July