In the summer of 2020, 58% of COVID deaths were among skilled nursing facility residents. Still, the proportion of COVID deaths among skilled nursing facility residents has dropped steadily since vaccinations became available, officials said. But the first shots do little to protect from current strains, and just 70% of residents and 48% of staff have had the bivalent booster. The overwhelming majority at skilled nursing facilities have had the first round of shots, with 89% of residents and 98% of staff vaccinated. There is a caveat though: People in nursing facilities are vaccinated at higher levels, officials in L.A. County, 43% in O.C., 34.4% in Riverside and 32.9% in San Bernardino County have had the bivalent booster. Statewide, 44% of Californians over age 65 are up to date on vaccinations, though again, lower in SoCal. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)Īmong the older age group, vaccination rates are a bit better. Saramaria, 36, caught the coronavirus at the convalescent home where she worked as a nurse, Ramirez said. Julian Ramirez, who lost his wife Saramaria to COVID-19, shows a collage her coworkers made of her in his Arleta home on Friday, November 20, 2020. County, 19.7% in O.C., 12.6% in Riverside County and 11.4% in San Bernardino County. It’s lower in Southern California, with just 20% of folks up to date in L.A. Statewide, only 21% of all Californians are up to date on their COVID vaccinations, meaning they’ve had the bivalent booster. It also doesn’t help that most folks of all ages are turning their noses up at revving up their immunity as time wears on. While this may make sense for most, it does not for people in nursing homes.” Currently, very few are doing what works to protect themselves from infection (e.g., masking, PPE, prudent decision-making) since the Centers for Disease Control and California Department of Public Health relaxed their guidelines. “I say this because we have known shortly after the pandemic began that this patient population was at very high risk for infection, serious disease and death. John Swartzberg, clinical professor emeritus in the UC Berkeley School of Public Health’s division of infectious diseases and vaccinology. Still, I’m disappointed that we are not doing a better job protecting these individuals,” said Dr. “I’m not surprised to see a high death rate in nursing homes given the age and health status of the occupants. County, and it’s similar most everywhere else, officials said. Over the past several months, though, it hasn’t topped 10.Īll good, but - fully half of open outbreak investigations are at skilled nursing facilities in L.A. County nursing homes reached an apex after Christmas 2021, with 94 in one week. Source: California Department of Public Health “We appear to be in a steady state with no real meaningful increase detected in the recent months,” said Ellen Guevara, spokeswoman for the Orange County Health Care Agency. ![]() ![]() Outbreaks at nursing home facilities in Orange County hit 31 in December. “Although the number of open outbreak investigations across Los Angeles County is near an all-time low, skilled nursing facilities continue to experience a high proportion of outbreaks when compared to other sectors,” the LA Department of Public Health warned last week. Might more lives be spared if we were a bit more cautious? This holds true as total COVID-19 deaths have dropped dramatically - largely thanks to immunity built up through vaccination and natural infection - and even in the face of a nearly total abandonment of safety precautions like masking, keeping a respectful distance and staying up to date on vaccinations. And through the first half of this year, 72%. To wit: In 2020, older folks accounted for 75.4% of deaths. That has remained stunningly steady, with folks over 65 years old accounting for roughly three-quarters of all deaths since the dawn of the pandemic. Over the course of this historic pandemic - from pants-on-fire emergency to slow, steady simmer, from the very first virus to its nth mutation - there has been remarkable consistency in who gets sick and dies:
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