Nursing homes and other nursing homes have higher rates of Covid-19 infections and deaths when their staff have lower vaccination rates, according to a US scientific study. 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 areas with a high transmission of coronavirus, the units with the lowest vaccination coverage had more than double the number of Covid-19 infections and almost tripled the number of deaths among the guests, compared to those with the highest vaccination rates. This was true regardless of the degree to which guests and patients were vaccinated, indicating that staff vaccination plays an important role in the spread of Covid-19.
Units with low vaccination coverage averaged 1.56 more Covid-19 cases per 100 beds among guests, 1.50 more cases per 100 beds among staff, and 0.19 more deaths per 100 beds among guests, in in relation to units with high vaccination coverage of 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 Covid-19 cases 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.
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