Failure to count COVID-19 nursing home deaths could dramatically skew US numbers

In New York state, 19 nursing homes have each reported 20 or more deaths from COVID-19. A nursing home in New Jersey reported 70 deaths out of its 500 residents. In the words of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, these homes have become a “feeding frenzy” for the virus and “the single biggest fear.”

With the clustering of people who are frail and have multiple other illnesses like heart disease, stroke, chronic lung disease and diabetes, the risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19 is much higher in nursing homes.

Yet, the United States does not know how many people are dying from COVID-19 in part because the government is only just now requiring nursing homes to start reporting numbers of presumed and confirmed cases and deaths to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Continue reading.