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A nursing home in Connecticut had planned to give its residents Covid booster vaccines earlier this month.

But before starting the program, the coronavirus had swept through the home of the Geer Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in North Canaan, infecting 89 people, including 67 residents. Almost all of them were fully vaccinated.

According to the house, eight of the residents died from Covid, all of which were said to have “serious underlying health problems”.

The severity of the outbreak has prompted Connecticut officials to recently announce that the state will set up support clinics in all nursing homes to cover facilities that have not administered additional doses.

Some states are experiencing new increases in Covid casesespecially in the Midwest and Northeast. And despite a nationwide vaccination rate of nearly 86 percent among those living in skilled care facilities, new outbreaks were reported in nursing homes in Vermont, Virginia and elsewhere this month.

Support programs have become more urgent as about 4,000 new cases of Covid-19 are reported each week in nursing homes, according to the report. federal dataand experts say that most clusters of cases occur in homes that have not yet administered the extra doses.

“Comparing the Covid-19 disease rates between those who received two doses of vaccine and those who received the booster vaccine, the rate of disease was significantly lower for those who received the booster vaccines, indicating that our booster vaccines are working,” he said. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, White House briefing this month.

And in some places, outbreaks among residents may still be occurring as vaccination rates continue among nursing home staff. To stay behind national averages.

Health experts said the delivery of support has been slow and piecemeal, unlike concerted federal pressure to vaccinate residents and workers in nursing homes last winter. Little public knowledge: About 42 percent of Americans over 65 have received a booster vaccine, according to federal reports, but there is no data yet to monitor nursing home support programs on US sites.

Amazing Covid death toll According to some experts, the sharp declines in cases after the successful vaccination campaign in nursing homes in 2020, followed by a steady rise again in late summer, should have made supplements a top priority for older Americans.

A physician and dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, Dr. “What is surprising is the lack of data and attention on nursing homes this time,” Ashish Jha said. He noted that the government should allow additional doses as early as July, especially since those living in nursing homes are among the first to receive the vaccine 10 months or more ago.

Dr. “The data was clear at that point,” Jha said. “We were seeing decreased immunity, especially in the elderly.”

In August, third doses of some vaccines were allowed for people with weakened immune systems. But experts say that with the approval of booster vaccines for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in late September, followed by the approval of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines next month, many nursing home residents have already lost some of their initial protection against infection. . And because of their age and poor health, they were more vulnerable to serious illness.

“Six months for them was a lot sooner than six months for the general population,” said David Grabowski, a professor of health policy at Harvard who studies nursing homes. Residents of assisted living facilities are particularly at risk as there is no coherent strategy, he said. New outbreaks complicate things by suspending expediting programs until cases subside.

Last winter, the effort to vaccinate residents was handed over to two major pharmacy chains, CVS Health and Walgreens. When federal contracts expire earlier this year, nursing homes have reverted to relying on pharmacies typically used to help vaccinate residents against flu.

The Biden administration said it has been successful in its efforts to get residents to receive the additional doses. “We’re seeing really strong progress across the country, in the states,” said Sonya Bernstein, the White House’s senior adviser on Kovid. It has solidly selected programs in West Virginia, Ohio, and North Carolina.

Other areas have also managed to provide substantial support coverage. For example, Los Angeles County, in mid-November, nearly all residents She had taken empowering shots at skilled nursing facilities.

Ms. Bernstein said the federal government is also working with facilities that cannot find pharmacies. “Any long-term care facility that needs help is matched with one of our partners,” said Ms. Bernstein.

Public health officials said in a recent announcement that half of those 65 and older who qualify for booster vaccines for the Pfizer vaccine in late September have received their vaccinations. This was compared to the approximately three months it took for this group to receive half the initial doses.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which reports vaccination rates nationwide and for individual facilities on its website, said it plans to release data on boosters in the next two weeks, and on its website, it allows consumers to “compare individual nursing homes in the coming months.” ”

“CMS is working with nursing homes to increase Covid-19 booster uptake,” the agency said.

Pharmacies helping nursing homes with these studies say that they have not experienced any problems. “From our point of view, we did not experience any delays or concerns,” said Chad Worz, president of the American Association of Consulting Pharmacists. “The vaccine is plentiful.”

CVS Health, owner of the Omnicare unit serving nursing homes, said it could not provide any data on the number of booster shots it delivered to nursing homes. “We have seen strong interest from our long-term care customers and continue to meet that demand through a variety of distribution channels,” said TJ Crawford, a spokesperson.

But other problems related to the pandemic continue to plague nursing homes. big numbers Percentage of unvaccinated employees, although the average staff vaccination rate has now reached 74 percent. While multiple states are suing to block the rule, the federal mandate to vaccinate personnel is approaching.

Many facilities are also struggling with severe and costly staff shortages. Some say the CMS’ decision earlier this month to require nursing homes to allow unrestricted visitation by residents has complicated its efforts. Some said they were caught off guard by the announcement that visits are now allowed at all times for all residents and that this could introduce new community infections into homes.

In Minnesota, a state where cases are escalating, only one-fifth of hospice residents received support in early November. report by the Star Tribune. State health officials declined to comment.

To deal with the increased workload, Governor Tim Walz recently deployed 400 members of the Minnesota National Guard to state nursing homes who are struggling to find enough workers to care for residents.

The American Health Care Association, the nursing home industry’s trade group, for its part, said the support offering was “going well.”

“With 15,000 nursing homes nationwide, these onsite clinics take some time to plan and prepare,” the association said.

With booster vaccines approved for all three vaccines given in late October, the association said it will “take about another month to see a large proportion of residents and staff strengthen.”

Still, many see the current outbreaks as evidence of the need to act much faster. At ArchCare, which operates six nursing homes in the New York area, 93 percent of residents took their supplements, after chief executive Scott LaRue began giving extra doses in mid-October.

“In my mind, it’s too late to plan together if you want to save lives,” said Mr. LaRue. “You need to inoculate residents and staff, and you need to get them boosters. This is a matter of life and death.”

Supportive vaccines in nursing homes “couldn’t come too soon,” said Brendan Williams, CEO of the New Hampshire Health Care Association, who reported that caseloads were rising at their facilities. “Everything that’s going on right now is an advertisement for supporting footage,” he said.