AARP’s latest dashboard indicates COVID infections and deaths are declining in nursing homes in Louisiana based on the case and fatality numbers from mid-January to mid-February. However, AARP State Director Denise Bottcher said we are not out of the woods yet.
“Although these new rates are improving, I just want to point out that they’re still just as high as they were in the summer of 2020,”” said Bottcher.
New COVID infections among residents dropped from the previous 4-week period to 1,521 to 643 and deaths dropped from 347 to 183.
“We know that the vaccine rollout gives us hope but we should not lose sight of the chronic ongoing problems facing our long-term care system,” said Bottcher.
COVID cases among staff dropped from 1,391 to 584.
Bottcher said they expect to continue to see case numbers and COVID deaths decline in nursing homes in the next dashboard and that the vaccines have been performed in all facilities to those who wished to be vaccinated.
Even as case numbers begin to decline, Bottcher said facilities must be diligent about testing.
“What’s important though is that nursing homes continue to do COVID testing of residents and staff, even though they’ve been vaccinated, to see if for any reason they would pick up the variant,” said Bottcher.
Bottcher said the pandemic has made staffing issues even worse at nursing homes. Currently, 32-percent of facilities report a shortage of staff.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a policy today allowing nursing home residents who have been vaccinated the ability to receive hugs from others who have completed their vaccines but should remain masked and use hand sanitizer to counterbalance the risk.
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