Protecting the Most Vulnerable Populations During COVID-19

Thousands of COVID-19 deaths have been linked to nursing home residents or their caregivers - but COVID-19 isn’t stopping there. Though hundreds of thousands have been infected, efforts taken by governments such as social distancing have been proven to work. Looking at and comparing cities of similar sizes who enacted social distancing guidelines at different times can give us some insight on how well social distancing works.

Boston, after the first reported case of COVID-19 came in on February 1, 2020, took 53 days to issue a stay at home order - by then there were 663 cases per 100,000 people. San Francisco however, had the first reported case of COVID-19 on March 5, 2020, and just 13 days later, San Francisco issued a stay at home order, having only 114 cases per 100,000 people.

Even with measures such as social distancing, many people are still being infected and many more are at high risk. One such group that is at high risk is the elderly and long term care patients in long term care facilities - over the course of only a few days, coronavirus cases among long term care patients spiked by a astounding 172%The Life Care Center of Kirkland in Seattle was one the hardest hit and one the first hit places in the U.S.

More than two thirds of the residents then tested positive for COVID-19 and nearly 40 of the residents passed away from the virus. Nursing homes around the country, more than 2,000, have reported cases of COVID-19. New Jersey alone has nearly 400 of said facilities that have been reached by the outbreak and have had an astonishing 1,500 deaths. 

Find out how to properly use data for nursing homes to help track and stop the spread of COVID-19 here.