The New York Times COVID-19 Long Term Care Facility Tracker: The New York Times has been putting together its own database of coronavirus cases and deaths at long-term care facilities for older adults. These include nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, memory care facilities, retirement and senior communities and rehabilitation facilities, which provides a better picture of infections and deaths among older adults in all facilities; CMS data is limited to nursing homes. The Times’ data includes cases and deaths by state for 12,000 facilities. While about 11% of cases have occurred in LTC facilities, the death rate is a whopping 43% — totalling about 54,000 residents and workers. According to the Times analysis, “The median case fatality rate — the number of cases divided by the number of deaths — at facilities with reliable data is 17 percent, significantly higher than the 5 percent case fatality rate nationwide.”
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is now posting data about COVID-19 vaccine booster shots administered to nursing home residents and staff on the Medicare.gov Care Compare website. The data will show resident and staff booster rates at the facility level and will include national and state averages. More information can be found on the CDC nursing home dashboard.