In the past month, the number of nursing homes with active COVID-19 cases in Texas has increased dramatically, as this southwestern state continues to have the second largest number of new infections per day in the country.
Texas Tribune Friday report The number of nursing homes in Texas with at least COVID-19 has increased by nearly 800%. At the same time, the vaccination rate of nursing home residents in Southwestern State ranks 46th in the country. In terms of vaccinated nursing home staff, Texas ranks 33rd compared to all other states.
According to the Tribune, in mid-July, only 56 nursing homes in Texas were infected with at least one type of COVID-19. As of August 11, this number had jumped to 489, an increase of 773%. However, this number is still much lower than in January, when more than 900 nursing home facilities were infected with COVID-19.
Sergio Flores/Getty Images
The number of deaths in nursing homes has also increased significantly. Although only 7 nursing home residents died of COVID-19 in the four weeks before July 21, more than 80 people died of the new coronavirus in the weeks after that until August 11. Approximately 76% of nursing home residents were vaccinated in Texas, which is slightly lower than the national average of 82%. When it comes to nursing home staff, only 56% have been fully vaccinated.
“We believe that the spread is caused by unvaccinated staff,” Annaliese Impink, executive vice president and spokesperson for the Retama Manor Care Center, told the Texas Tribune. She pointed out that her facility “residents are in our center and don’t go out often. The vaccination rate in our center is quite good.”
“So, you just have to guess that it mainly comes from unvaccinated staff,” Impink said.
As early as March, state health officials relaxed restrictions on visitors to Texas nursing homes. The new regulations allow fully vaccinated nursing home residents to receive family members after one year of isolation-as long as specific facilities allow it.picture Many other states, The nursing home was hit hard by the Texas pandemic.
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission reported that since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 9,000 nursing home residents have died in the state. This accounts for approximately 17% of the total number of more than 54,000 COVID-19 deaths in Texas.
According to statistics, as of Friday, Texas has an average of nearly 14,000 new cases of COVID-19 infection every day. New York Times‘Tracker.Country Ranking Second only to Florida When it comes to new daily infections.In the past 14 days, cases in Texas have surged by nearly 60%, and Increase in hospitalization 86%. Currently, more than 10,100 Texans are hospitalized due to the new virus, and the average daily death toll is slightly less than 90.
Weekly newspaper Contacted the Texas Health and Human Services Commission for comment, but did not receive an immediate response.
