Lower than 50% of nursing home residents, certainly one of the country’s most vulnerable populations to severe illness from Covid-19, have received an omicron booster ahead of an expected wave of infection this winter.
The Biden administration has made increasing booster uptake amongst nursing home residents a central a part of its strategy to stop a serious spike of hospitalizations and death this winter.
“We’re working very closely with leadership of nursing homes across America, and we’ve asked them to step as much as do more,” Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House Covid taskforce leader, told reporters during a press briefing Thursday.
“And we’re reaching out to governors where nursing home vaccination rates are low to supply personalized support,” Jha said.
The administration is working with nursing homes to make certain vaccines and coverings can be found on site, Jha said. The federal government can be increasing the pool of staff that may administer vaccines at nursing homes.
The American Healthcare Association, which represents nursing homes, asked the Biden administration in November to waive certain restrictions that prevented facility staff from giving the shots to residents. The White House said on Thursday that nursing home staff can now administer the boosters.
Seniors, particularly nursing home residents, are the age group most vulnerable to severe disease and death from Covid.
Nearly 161,000 nursing home residents have died from Covid because the pandemic began, in accordance with data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Nursing home residents represent about 15% of the greater than 1 million individuals who have died from the virus within the U.S. since 2020.
While 86% of nursing home residents have accomplished their primary vaccination series, just 47% of residents have received all of their really helpful boosters, in accordance with CMS data. Only 22% of nursing home staff are up to this point with their shots.
Jha has said most people who find themselves dying from Covid straight away are seniors who are usually not up to this point on their vaccines and are usually not receiving treatments resembling the antiviral Paxlovid after they have a breakthrough infection.
Covid cases in nursing homes increased 65% from 11,400 through the week ending Nov. 13 to 18,900 through the week ending Dec. 4, according data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cases dropped 11% in the next week to 16,700, in accordance with the info.
Covid deaths in nursing homes increased 25% from 256 through the week ending Nov. 20 to 321 for the week ending Dec. 11. That’s dramatically lower than the pandemic peak of greater than 6,000 nursing home deaths the week of Dec. 20, 2020.
Jha has repeatedly said virtually every Covid death is now preventable through vaccination and treatment.
“There are still too many older Americans who haven’t gotten their immunity updated who haven’t gotten themselves protected,” Jha said.
Along with vaccines, anyone who tests positive for Covid should discover whether or not they are eligible for treatments resembling the antiviral Paxlovid, Jha said.
“It’s extremely clear to me that anybody of their 60s or above needs to be treated,” he said. “There needs to be reason to not treat anyone and there is rarely reason, meaning most individuals needs to be getting treated straight away.”
