Long-term care providers should keep a lookout — and potentially test for — a common respiratory virus that is spreading off-season in the southern United States, according to a CDC health alert. Staff members with symptoms should stay home, even if they test negative for COVID-19, the agency says.
The CDC has relaxed rules for wearing respirators in healthcare settings, but a team of Harvard doctors is encouraging workers to keep an eye on local COVID-19 rates. The superior fit and filtration of an N95 mask can provide extra protection when local incidence climbs, they say.
Assisted living residents had 17% higher rates of overall mortality in 2020 compared with the year prior, CMS data show. That’s in line with the experience of nursing homes, and is likely an underestimate, investigators say.
The virus remains a threat, with more than 10,000 residents and staff members contracting the disease and 800 dying from it each month in federally certified facilities, according to a new analysis of federal data.
Temperature and population density determine how easily the virus spreads — but only when localities have no mobility restrictions in place, a new study shows.
Investigators found nearly 20 times the rate of COVID-19 infection in unvaccinated healthcare staff, plus signs that transmission clusters were linked to those workers.
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Residents who develop COVID-19 may face weeks of illness, no matter how mild or severe their symptoms, according to geriatricians from Indiana University and the Regenstrief Institute, Indianapolis.
Higher facility star ratings are tied to lower COVID transmission rates and fewer deaths, according to the agency’s chief medical officer and director of its Center for Clinical Standards and Quality.
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