Latest CMS, CDC and NHSN Nursing Home COVID-19 Data

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP
Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare

CMS has posted the nursing home COVID-19 data for the week ending October 2, 2022.

Comparing the October 2nd data to the September 25th data shows these changes:

  • Resident primary vaccination completion rate decreased by 0.1% from previous week
  • Residents up to date with vaccines decreased 5.7% from previous 2 weeks
  • Staff primary vaccination completion rate remained unchanged from the previous week
  • Staff up to date with vaccines decreased 5.7% from the previous week
  • An additional 8,263 resident cases were confirmed this week
  • An additional 171 resident deaths were reported this week
  • An additional 7,545 staff cases were confirmed this week
  • An additional 6 staff deaths were reported this week

As I say every week with this report, please continue your efforts to educate staff, residents and families about the life-saving benefits of the primary vaccinations as well as the importance of getting the booster – now the bivalent booster.

Reminder: On September 1, 2022, CDC recommended updated COVID-19 boosters from Pfizer-BioNTech for people ages 12 years and older and from Moderna for people ages 18 years and older. The first booster dose and second booster dose metrics currently on COVID-19 Data Tracker include administrations of both the previously recommended and updated booster doses. CDC is working to update visualizations and metrics to reflect the new recommendations across COVID-19 Data Tracker webpages, including providing individual totals for both booster dose types.

Now is not the time to be complacent – residents and staff continue to become ill and die at significant rates. Every resident and every staff death is a loss to the community and families.

Be sure to review your facility’s vaccination rates on the list of every nursing home with recent resident and staff vaccination rates and other pertinent data  as this data will be used for completing the COVID-19 Matrix during survey. State surveyors look at this data in preparation for your survey. You’ll also need to know your current rate (as reported to NHSN) and provide it to the survey team entering your facility. This data is current as of the week ending October 2, 2022.

The CDC COVID Data Tracker shows these current community transmission levels as of October 10, 2022:

The NHSN Nursing Home Covid-19 Data Dashboard provides this data as of October 3, 2022, at 5:30am ET.  Note that the dashboard has not been updated, as of this writing, to reflect October 12, 2022 data. This NHSN website posts that the dashboard is updated weekly on Wednesday at 8:00 AM.

In case you missed it, Secretary Becerra (HHS) extended the PHE declaration yesterday afternoon.