Optimism at L.A. County’s nursing homes as coronavirus surge declines
LA Times“The extraordinarily high case rate has not caused a similar high increase in deaths among residents compared to our previous surges. We attribute these lower numbers to very high vaccination rates amongst nursing home residents,” said L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer. Los Angeles County’s nursing homes have observed an extraordinary increase in coronavirus case rates during the Omicron surge — reaching levels exceeding even last winter’s wave — but that unprecedented torrent of infections hasn’t been matched by a record-high number of daily COVID-19 deaths, county health data show. “We attribute these lower numbers to very high vaccination rates amongst nursing home residents.” Coronavirus case rates among nursing home residents and workers have already started to decline. “The high vaccination rates among staff are responsible for this very low death rate among our nursing home staff,” Ferrer said at last week’s county Board of Supervisors meeting.