A recent study has revealed that in nursing homes, vaccinating against COVID-19 appears to rapidly reduce the rates of infection, morbidity, and mortality.
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| Photo: COVID-19 Vaccination in Nursing Homes | InStyleHealth |
Experts surveyed 136 nursing homes that had been vaccinated
earlier (from 18th December to 2nd January 2021) as
opposed to 144 that had received vaccines later from 3rd January 2021
to 18th January 2021 during the pandemic.
Primary results of the study were calculated 7-day
moving average of new SARS-CoV-2 infections per 100 residents at risk. In nursing
homes that received vaccines earlier showed somewhat lower infection rates than
those that were immunized at a later time.
Similar effect was reported for mortality and
hospitalizations, through trendlines tended to be more volatile for these factors
due to the lower number of occurrences. Nonetheless, 5-6 weeks after their
final clinics, the early vaccination group revealed lower rates of death-hospitalization
composite results compared to facilities with a later rollout.
Estimates based on model confirmed the above
graph-derived trends. The model presented a statistically significant drop in
incident infections as early as the first week of vaccinations in the early
group, suggesting 1.6 and 2.5 fewer infections per 100 at-risk residents during
the first and second weeks after immunization, correspondingly.
In the course of 5 weeks, the model predicted a
cumulative reduction of 5.2 cases per 100 at-risk residents. Regarding the
composite between hospitalization and/or death, the model predicted 1.1 to 3.8
fewer incidents per 100 infected residents per day, around 5-7 weeks after the
final facility in the early group had rolled out the vaccination.
Source: J Am GeriatrSoc 2021