UNITED STATES—Nursing homes and assisted living facilities are among some of the hardest hit by the novel coronavirus which are breeding grounds for the disease SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 due to older adults living in close proximity and with underlying chronic medical conditions.
At the beginning of May, the Centers for Medicare and Medical Services issued a regulation that required the country’s 15,000 nursing homes to disclose their COVID-19 data to the Centers for Disease Control no later than May 17. Nursing facilities were required to report data to state and local health authorities, but those reports have yet to be disclosed publicly.
The CDC expects to begin to making information about nursing homes available at the end of May. The federal government does not track nursing home residents who have died from the virus, or the number of facilities that have had outbreaks.
Since the data revolving around the virus in nursing homes is not yet available, there are new analyses being produced independently.
A new state-by-state analysis conducted by Gregg Girvan and Avik Roy estimated that 40 percent of coronavirus deaths have occurred in nursing homes and assisted living facilities as of May 5. Roy and Girvan’s calculations of reported deaths from the virus in long term care facilities are available to view here.
The New York Times created their own database and a third of all deaths in the United States from the coronavirus are linked to long-term care facilities as of May 11.
The California Department of Public Health is collecting data county by county of confirmed cases and COVID-19 related deaths in skilled nursing facilities as of May 19.
The highest figures to come out of Los Angeles County were two locations. Leisure Glen Post Acute Care Center in Glendale which had a total of 57 reported confirmed cases and greater than 11 coronavirus related deaths.
Country Villa South Convalescent Center in Los Angeles had a total of 54 reported confirmed cases, and 15 related deaths.
