Retirement homes and other nursing homes have higher rates of infection and death due to COVID-19, when their staff has lower vaccination rates, shows an American scientific research. The study confirms that the degree of vaccination of the staff protects the guests and patients in these structures accordingly, especially in the areas with many cases of coronavirus.
The researchers, led by Dr. Brian McGarry of the University of Rochester in New York and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, analyzed data from 12.363 nursing homes (81% of the total in the United States). ), correlating the vaccination rate of the staff of each unit with the confirmed cases and deaths in each, both the elderly and the staff themselves.
It was found that in the areas with high transmission of the coronavirus the units with the lowest vaccination coverage had more than double the infections. COVID-19 and almost three times as many deaths among guests as those with the highest staff vaccination rates. This was true regardless of the degree to which guests and patients were vaccinated, which shows that staff vaccination plays an important role in the spread of COVID-19.
Units with low vaccination coverage had an average of 1,56 more cases COVID-19 per 100 beds among guests, 1,50 more cases per 100 beds among staff and 0,19 more deaths per 100 beds among guests, compared to units with high vaccination staff in the same area.
In areas with a small spread of the coronavirus the differences were smaller. The researchers estimated that if all units had achieved vaccination coverage of at least 83%, then there would have been approximately 7.500 fewer cases COVID-19 among staff and 4.800 fewer among guests, as well as 703 fewer deaths among the latter. "The findings clearly show that it is crucial that staff be highly vaccinated," McGarry was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Link to the scientific publication: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2115674
(KYPE-APE-BPE / AGK)