Holding nursing facility workers and residents present on their COVID-19 vaccines is a vital instrument for decreasing deaths from COVID-19. That is significantly related now since KFF evaluation discovered that over one-fifth of all U.S. COVID-19 deaths occurred in long-term care services and demise charges from COVID-19 are rising for folks ages 65 and older, who comprise most nursing facility residents. The variety of COVID-19 deaths per 30 days amongst folks 65 and over doubled between April 2022 and July 2022, exceeding 11,000 for the months of July and August.
Though preliminary vaccination charges for each teams have been fairly excessive, take-up of boosters has been decrease. These are troubling numbers as a result of a latest report from the CDC discovered that receipt of a second COVID-19 booster dose was 90% efficient towards demise and 74% efficient towards extreme COVID-19-related outcomes for nursing facility residents. This knowledge notice describes COVID-19 vaccination charges of nursing facility residents and workers between August 2021 and the week ending September 18th, 2022. We briefly discover how federal coverage actions have affected vaccine take-up to date, and what that may imply for take-up of the brand new, bivalent boosters. Federal coverage could also be vital to selling take-up of these boosters because the KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor from September 2022 present half of adults have heard little or nothing in any respect in regards to the new boosters.
Take-up of the preliminary vaccine collection has been comparatively excessive, with over 85% of residents and workers finishing the first collection as of September 18, 2022 (Determine 1). Amongst nursing facility residents, 87% accomplished a main vaccine collection, which incorporates both 2 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or Novavax vaccines; or a single dose of the Janssen vaccine. There was minimal change in that fee during the last yr amongst nursing facility residents – in August 2021, 83% of residents had accomplished their main collection. Amongst nursing facility workers, 88% accomplished a main vaccine collection by September 18, 2022. That fee elevated from 62% in August 2021 to 88% in March 2022 and has remained steady since.
Take-up of boosters has been decrease: Solely 74% of all residents and 51% of all workers had acquired a number of booster photographs as of September 18, 2022. Among the many inhabitants who accomplished the preliminary vaccine collection and have been eligible for a booster, 86% of residents and 57% of workers had acquired a number of boosters. The CDC started recommending booster photographs for nursing facility residents in September 2021, after knowledge indicated that vaccinations grow to be much less efficient over time, particularly amongst older adults. Preliminary take-up amongst residents was fast and the proportion of vaccinated residents who had a booster shot elevated from 1% in September 2021 to just about 60% in January 2022. Since then, the proportion of residents who’ve had a booster has elevated however at a a lot slower fee, rising to 74% in September 2022. Booster take-up has been a lot decrease amongst nursing facility workers. Between September 2021 and September 2022, the proportion of vaccinated workers who had acquired a booster grew from 1% to 51%. Any booster dose given to nursing facility residents or workers after September 1, 2022 is the brand new bivalent booster.
Vaccination and booster charges fluctuate significantly throughout the states and in 30 states, fewer than half of all workers had acquired a number of booster photographs as of September 18, 2022 (Determine 2). Vaccination charges for nursing facility residents vary from 76% in Arizona to 97% in Vermont. Booster charges are decrease, starting from 59% in Arizona to 92% in Vermont. Amongst workers, the vaccination fee ranges from 78% in Ohio, Idaho, and Missouri to 100% in New York and Maine. The chances who’ve acquired a booster vary from 32% in Missouri, Alabama, and Mississippi to 96% in Massachusetts.
Wanting ahead, each federal coverage and native outreach efforts may very well be vital to selling take-up of the brand new bivalent boosters amongst nursing facility residents and workers. One possible cause for the fast preliminary take-up of vaccines and boosters throughout 2021 amongst nursing facility residents and workers was that there have been three on-site vaccination clinics held in any respect long-term care services taking part within the Federal Pharmacy Partnership for Lengthy-Time period Care Program. (Different components contributing to excessive take-up charges embrace very excessive demise charges from COVID-19 amongst folks in nursing services and the truth that they have been a primary focus of the preliminary vaccine roll-out.) Services are nonetheless in a position to request extra clinics, nevertheless it’s unclear what number of services are doing so or what number of pharmacy companions proceed to take part. Present CDC steering encourages services to let residents and workers find out about alternatives to obtain vaccines locally. It’s attainable that decrease take-up of boosters might mirror elevated issue in getting vaccinated locally fairly than on-site. Amongst nursing facility workers, preliminary take-up of COVID-19 vaccines was low till the well being care employee vaccination mandate required suppliers that take part in Medicare and/or Medicaid to be vaccinated. Together with different components, this mandate led to elevated take-up of the first vaccination collection amongst nursing facility workers and early proof means that it didn’t enhance the frequency of staffing shortages.
Creating new alternatives for on-site vaccinations and updating the well being care employee vaccination mandate to mirror present CDC steering might enhance the variety of nursing facility residents and workers who’re updated with their COVID-19 vaccinations. The CDC not too long ago up to date the definition of “up-to-date” vaccination standing for long-term care services to align with the definition of “up-to-date” that the CDC rolled out earlier extra broadly throughout the nation. Beginning on September 2nd throughout the nation and on September 26th for long-term care services’ reporting/surveillance functions, the CDC’s new definition of “up-to-date” is having acquired a bivalent booster or having acquired a closing shot of the unique vaccines lower than 2 months in the past. Nursing services could have been topic to this delayed definition of “up-to-date” to align higher with quarterly reporting durations. As such, they started reporting the proportion of residents who met the brand new “up-to-date” customary beginning September 26th, 2022. After there are adequate knowledge obtainable utilizing the brand new definition, KFF will replace this evaluation and supply state-level outcomes on State Well being Details.
This evaluation makes use of federal knowledge on staffing reported weekly by services to the CDC’s Nationwide Healthcare Security Community (NHSN) and displays weekly knowledge via the week ending September 18th, 2022. These knowledge are up to date often to mirror revised knowledge from earlier weeks, so future variations of this dataset reflecting the identical time interval could output totally different values.
Every week, roughly 15,200 nursing services submit knowledge via NHSN. CMS performs knowledge high quality checks to determine services which will have entered incorrect knowledge earlier than publishing this knowledge for public obtain. Services which have submitted inaccurate knowledge could have an “N” displayed within the column titled “Handed High quality Assurance Examine”. Our closing pattern of nursing services on this evaluation excludes services that CMS flagged of their knowledge high quality test, in addition to services which can be lacking scarcity measures. This evaluation displays knowledge from anyplace between 14,118 nursing services (93% of all services) and 15,043 nursing services (99% of all services) every week. |