COVID death rates are way down. Now comes the hard part
Answering pleas to open up facility visitation policies is going to be trickier than many realize.
Answering pleas to open up facility visitation policies is going to be trickier than many realize.
Five residents of a skilled nursing facility tested positive twice for SARS-CoV-2 in separate outbreaks three months apart, before vaccines were available. The disease course was more severe in the second illness, and one resident died.
Long-term care providers are calling on the federal government to remove regulations that base nursing home indoor visitations on COVID-19 positivity rates in the area now that vaccine coverage is widespread for facilities.
Long-term care providers should be encouraged after new findings showed no strong correlation between COVID-19 and death among residents, authorities say.
Uncertainty about device efficacy highlights the importance of assessing symptoms beyond blood oxygen levels when treating COVID-19 patients, the agency says.
Fully vaccinated individuals may now skip quarantine after exposure to an infected person. But that doesn’t go for healthcare workers in facility settings — except as a last option.
The most recent agency data show an increase in the number of willing vaccine recipients among groups prioritized for vaccination. Messages from clinicians could further boost confidence, investigators say.
Federal health agencies are being pressured again to retroactively collect data on COVID-19 deaths and cases from nursing homes to improve the government’s response to the pandemic.
The agency has suggested exceptions to its official vaccine rules for cases when supply shortages interrupt second doses.
Close to 90% of all U.S. nursing homes have completed their first coronavirus vaccine clinic, according to new federal data, and the number of people that also have received their booster shot is rising steadily.