Nursing Homes Are Seeing COVID-19 Cases Drop Due To Vaccines, Federal Officials Say
Buzzfeed News
Dan Vergano
Vaccines are cutting down COVID-19 case numbers in US nursing homes, a federal health official reported on Thursday, a long-awaited break in the deadly grip of the pandemic on the most vulnerable older adults.
Nursing homes have been the deadliest place for people with COVID-19 throughout the pandemic, killing more than 150,000 residents and staff, so far. Vaccination at long-term care facilities was a high priority in the nationwide rollout of coronavirus vaccines that started in December, as COVID-19 cases reached record levels nationwide, and nursing homes locked down over the holidays. Now the vaccines are starting to make a difference, newly released health data suggests, accelerating a 22% drop in nursing home COVID-19 case rates seen from Dec. 20 to Jan. 10.
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Nursing home COVID-19 cases had been the “leading edge” of the US epidemic since last February, when an outbreak at a Washington state facility led to 46 deaths among residents, staff, and visitors, marking the start of deadly cases striking older adults nationwide. A sign of the turn of the tide of such cases due to vaccination would not be unexpected, as clinical trial data suggested a drop resulted among the immunized about two weeks after the first shot, said epidemiologist George Rutherford of the University of California, San Francisco, but is nonetheless heartening.
“These are really good vaccines, and we are seeing them take effect, which is wonderful,” said Rutherford. “The data showed that they had good efficacy even after one shot, which I suspect is what we are starting to see here.”
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/danvergano/covid-vaccines-nursing-homes?ref=bfnsplash&utm_term=4ldqpho
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