AARP data shows an alarming increase in COVID transmission among Louisiana nursing homes for the month of January. AARP State Director Denise Bottcher says staff cases increased from 102 in December to 5,540-hundred, and for residents, it went from 54 to 3,619.
“You saw just the dramatic increase in cases that were spreading in nursing homes,” said Bottcher.
Bottcher says long-term care facilities reflect community transmission and usually lag about two weeks behind statewide trends.
And while case numbers increased radically with the Omicron variant Bottcher credits the high vaccination and boosted rate of 56.1% among nursing home residents at keeping COVID fatalities from spiking as much as cases. In December four COVID deaths were reported and in January it increased to 49.
“Resident’s deaths from COVID, while they increased also, from December to January, we did not see the numbers of deaths that we have seen in previous surges,” said Bottcher.
As for nursing home staff, Bottcher says there has been an increase in the vaccination rate however only 16-percent of staff is boosted which we know is extremely important in decreasing severe COVID and death.
“We really need to continue to push that because we want to protect this fragile population as much as possible,” said Bottcher.
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