The Vaccine Is Not Coming Soon Enough for Nursing Homes

December 9, 2020

(The Atlantic) – A new COVID-19 spike in long-term-care facilities emerged in the West and Northeast last week, with both regions reporting their highest numbers of new cases in the past six months. The Midwest and South saw a small downturn in new cases, which is promising, yet the week still saw the nation’s highest number of newly reported cases—51,574—in long-term-care facilities since we started collecting these data in May. Nationally, deaths increased by 27 percent from the previous week. More than a third of long-term-care-facility deaths were reported in the Midwest; Michigan, Illinois, and Minnesota each reported more than 200 deaths. In the South, Texas reported the highest number of new deaths, 360.