Nursing homes epicenter of COVID-19 deaths

WASHINGTON (SBG) – Public health officials have said from the beginning our elderly would be most vulnerable to dying from COVID-19, and now the headlines are backing that up.

On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported, "Nearly 70 dead in ‘horrific’ outbreak at veterans home."In The Guardian,"Half of coronavirus deaths happen in care homes, data from EU suggests."

And as reported in The Baltimore Sun, brand new numbers out of the state of Maryland showed the same, that out of the state's 929 confirmed COVID-19 related deaths, 471 were in nursing homes, statistics that echo some other states as well.

“When you’re looking at numbers like that you kind of have to realize that nursing home and assisted living facilities and all long-term care facilities really are the epicenter of this pandemic," saidPriya Chidambaram, a Policy Analyst with The Kaiser Family Foundation, in an interview Wednesday. She added that in addition to restricting visitors, policies at most facilities have already seen drastic changes.

"We’re seeing states that are now requiring a symptom screening whether it’s a family member, someone coming into to do deliveries all staff members are getting screened at the beginning of their shifts," she said.

The question for many now is how this information should be taken into account when it comes to phased plans to re-open the economy. Even in states that already have, vulnerable populations like the elderly have been advised to stay inside, but should that mean other businesses have less to worry about.

Most experts say it's too early to tell and caution against returning to normal life too soon or too fast -- especially since nursing facilities have also been the focus of so much testing.

“When you’re testing a particular population very aggressively you’re going to see not necessarily an inflated number but a higher number of cases," said Chidambaram.

She and others have already warned the way nursing homes operate may be forever changed.