Increase in vaccination rate linked to fewer COVID-19 cases and deaths among residents, cases among staff<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter<\/b><\/p>\n
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THURSDAY, Jan. 5, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Before the omicron wave, increasing vaccination for staff at U.S. nursing homes was associated with fewer COVID-19 cases and deaths among residents and fewer cases among staff, according to a study published online Dec. 29 in JAMA Network Open<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n Soham Sinha and R. Tamara Konetzka, Ph.D., from the University of Chicago, examined the extent to which staff vaccination was associated with preventing COVID-19 cases and deaths among residents and staff in nursing homes in a longitudinal study. The primary analysis was performed at 15,042 U.S. nursing homes before the omicron variant wave (May 30 to Dec. 5, 2021).<\/p>\n The researchers found that increasing weekly staff vaccination rates by 10 percentage points was associated with 0.13 fewer weekly COVID-19 cases per 1,000 residents; 0.02 fewer weekly COVID-19 deaths per 1,000 residents; and 0.03 fewer weekly COVID-19 staff cases in the primary analysis. Increasing staff vaccination rates was not associated with lower rates of adverse COVID-19 outcomes in nursing homes in the secondary analysis of the omicron wave from Dec. 5, 2021, to Jan. 30, 2022.<\/p>\n “With unpredictable outbreaks of new, more infectious, and transmissible strains of the COVID-19 virus, evolving policy, potentially including mandates for additional booster doses for staff, may be needed to confer adequate protection against adverse outcomes of COVID-19 in nursing homes,” the authors write.<\/p>\n